Children's Mental Health Services

Ramsey County Human Services helps people survive and thrive

Ramsey County offers a variety of services to children, youth and their families to support young people dealing with mental health issues. Services are provided directly by Ramsey County or through collaborations with community agencies. Services include:

• Crisis Intervention
• Early Intervention Services
• Case Management
• Case Services for youth involved with the Court System

 Does culture matter?

The Ramsey County Childrens Mental Health Collaborative and Childrens Mental Health Advisory Council recently sponsored a workshop about Mental Health and Culture. The Panel discussions include perspectives from African, African American, American Indian, Hmong, Latino, Muslim and Somali professionals. They are presented below as Vimeo (tm) videos.

Panel: How is mental health viewed in various cultural communities? Watch Mental Health Session 1 (85 minutes)

Panel: How are mental health issues addressed in cultural communities? Watch Mental Health Session II (47 minutes) 

Panel: Does culture play a role in the delivery of best practices? Watch Mental Health Session III (77 minutes)

Department of Human Services Speaker Martha Aby: Overview of Best Practices in Mental Health (38 minutes)

The above presentations can also be viewed on Cable TV. Check your cable network for schedules.

• CTV North Suburbs (Comcast Channel 21) for Arden Hills, Falcon Heights, Lauderdale, Little Canada, Mounds View, New Brighton, North Oaks, Roseville, St Anthony and Shoreview
• St. Paul Neighborhood Network (Comcast Channel 15) for St Paul
  
• Suburban Communities Channels (Comcast Channel 13) for the following cities: Birchwood Village, Dellwood, Grant, Lake Elmo, Mahtomedi, Maplewood, North St Paul, Oakdale, Vadnais Heights, White Bear Lake, White Bear Township, Willernie

CHILDREN'S CRISIS RESPONSE

Contact Information: 651-774-7000

Program Description: Children’s Crisis response offers on-site response to children in homes, schools, or institutions. Services are available 24 hours per day, every day in Ramsey County.

• Services include de-escalation and crisis intervention; a thorough mental health assessment to determine any mental health issues; and development of an initial crisis plan
• Follow-up, short term care up to two weeks following the crisis, including transition to ongoing treatment, and crisis recurrence reduction strategies
• Over 90% of home-based crisis calls have been stabilized with the child remaining at home
• Spanish and Hmong language supports are available
• Services are provided by licensed mental health professionals or mental health practitioners under the supervision of a mental health professional
• Ramsey County is partnering with St. Paul Youth Service Bureau to provide the Children’s Crisis Response team

Eligibility: All crisis services are available to anyone regardless of ability to pay or insurance type. 

PROJECT ASSIST/EARLY INTERVENTION

Contact Information: 651-266-4042 or 651-266-4045

Program Description: This program provides culturally competent, comprehensive mental health assessments that will help parents and families access the correct interventions and supports to improve a young person’s mental health functioning at home, school and in the community.

• Project Assist provides home-based mental health assessments and brief case management to infants, toddlers, and school age youth
• Referrals are accepted from Child Protective Services, Juvenile Justice, schools, and other community resources that work with children
• Staff provide consultation to Child Protection and Juvenile Probation to improve the quality of mental health services to high risk children and youth
• Both Ramsey County staff and contracted staff from community agencies provide culturally specific mental health services
• All staff are either licensed mental health professionals or mental health practitioners under the supervision of a mental health professional

Eligibility: Mental health screening – a brief set of questions usually completed by a parent or a youth - helps to determine eligibility for services. (All services are provided at no cost, although insurance information is collected when available).

Learn more at Pediatric Symptom Checklist (Massachusetts General Hospital)

CHILDREN'S MENTAL HEALTH CASE MANAGEMENT

Contact Information: For general Case Management information, call 651-266-4500. For intake information, call 651-266-4492.

Program Description: Case Management is designed to serve families with children who have severe emotional and behavioral disturbances. In a culturally sensitive manner, case managers help families:

• Develop a treatment plan and a crisis plan.
• Provide information about and referral to community resources.
• Create a supportive team of family, professionals, and community members.
• Assist parents in advocating for their child’s mental health needs.

Eligibility: In order to receive case management services:

• The child must have a current SED diagnosis.
• The guardian must live in Ramsey County.
• The child’s guardian must request or consent to services.
• The child needs to qualify for and obtain medical assistance. Children with mental health disabilities may be eligible for medical assistance based on income or through a program called TEFRA.  For more information, call 651-266-3692. Learn more at Minnesota Department of Human Services.

To Apply: In order to establish medical necessity for case management:

• A Mental health professional must complete the Mental Health Case Mgt Referral Application based on an assessment from the last six months.
• Fax completed application and current diagnostic assessment to either:
  Childrens Mental Health Intake at 651-266-3715 or Project Enhance at 651-639-4033.
• The diagnostic assessment must meet all guidelines to bill Minnesota Health Care programs so should include a CASII, SDQ and CAGE-AID or GAIN-SS. 

PROJECT ENHANCE

Contact Information: Please contact your child’s school social worker, or school psychologist, or call 651-639-4016.

Program Description: Enhance staff work with small caseloads of children with Severe Emotional Disturbance (SED) challenges from Ramsey County school districts of Moundsview, Roseville, White Bear Lake or North St. Paul Maplewood, and Oakdale. In conjunction with the parents, or legal guardian and the child, staff assesses, plans, arranges and monitors mental health services and supports for children and their families. This includes:

• Developing a treatment plan and a crisis plan;
• Providing information about and referral to community resources;
• Creating a supportive team of family, professionals, and community members;
• Assisting parents in advocating for their child's mental health needs;
• Providing access to other supports.

Eligibility: In order to qualify for Project Enhance services, a student must meet qualifications for case management AND:

• Have a current SED (Severe Emotional Disturbance) diagnosis that is less than 180 days old in order to establish medical necessity.
• A mental health  professional must complete the  Mental Health Case Mgt Referral Application (Project Enhance Intake will assist families to obtain a diagnostic assessment if needed).
• Have the voluntary consent of their parents or legal guardian to participate.
• Be referred through a school liaison and/or the Ramsey County CMH Intake Unit and be accepted by Enhance intake, in consultation with the child's school district.
• Elementary age children and secondary students must be Ramsey County residents and reside in one of the four suburban school districts.
• The child needs to qualify for and obtain medical assistance. Children with mental health disabilities may be eligible for medical assistance based on income or through a program called TEFRA. For more information, call 651-266-3692

JUVENILE DELINQUENCY SERVICES

Program Description: Juvenile delinquency social workers provide casework services to children and teens that are on probation under the jurisdiction of Ramsey County Juvenile Court due to being charged and convicted of committing an illegal offense. Delinquency services are given only when ordered by the court. The social workers in the delinquency unit work collaboratively with other children’s service programs, law enforcement, community service providers, the county attorney’s office, community corrections, and school staff.  Together they ensure that the child or teen's physical, emotional and educational needs are being met, the child or teen remains law abiding, and public safety concerns are met.

Steps in this process are as follows:

1. When a child commits a crime, the county attorney files a petition in juvenile court (except for runaway petitions that are initiated by a social worker).
2. When a child is placed on probation the social worker in the delinquency unit assesses the child’s situation, evaluates their needs and makes recommendations to the court as to the conditions of probation they must abide by while under the supervision of the court.
3. The court may order a child be put on probation supervision, be given community service hours to complete, pay restitution, be held in the juvenile detention center, or placed out of the home for a specified length of time.
4. The social worker monitors the child’s progress and compliance with court orders and reports these findings to the court. The social worker will facilitate the services the child needs to fulfill the conditions of their probation until the child is no longer under the court’s jurisdiction.
5. When a child is released from the court’s supervision the social worker will close the case.

Other Resources:

Multi-Collaborative Access Team Directory is an annotated directory of mental health services and providers in the metropolitan area.
Learn more at MCAT 2012 Directory (45 page MS Word file)

Minnesota Association for Children's Mental Health has publications, workshops and more to promote positive mental health for children, teens and their families.
Minnesota Association for Children’s Mental Health

Minnesota Department of Corrections Juvenile Division facilitates the Juvenile Justice Mental Health Initiative among its responsibilities.
Learn more at MN Dept of Corrections Juvenile Division

Minnesota's Department of Human Services has a comprehensive website of statutes and supports.
Learn more at MN DHS Childrens Mental Health

Ramsey County Government provides additional social service supports for eligible residents.

Families who children have been involved with the judicial or court system may benefit from CCJ services.
Learn more at RC Community Corrections Juvenile Services

Children and youth, diagnosed before age 22, who have I.Q.s under 70, or who have related conditions such as autism, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and more, may benefit from Intellectual/Developmental Disability (IDD) services and case management.
Learn more at RC CHS IDD Services

Persons of any age who have disabilities other than IDD may benefit from Ramsey County's Disability Services.
Learn more at RC CHS Disability Services

Ramsey County Children's Mental Health Collaborative works with families, mental health providers, county government and schools to improve services. The website has a calendar of events.
Learn more at RCCMHC

Suburban Ramsey Family Collaborative  provides timely information and resources for children and teens health and safety needs.
Learn more at SRFC Kids Matter