The Strategic Behavioral Health Initiative (SBHI) aims to assess current behavioral health needs and resources for children and youth in San Diego County and develop a roadmap to a comprehensive continuum of care.
The Strategic Behavioral Health Initiative will convene community stakeholders, including parents and youth, healthcare providers, early care & education, the County of San Diego, and community-based organizations. Convenings and collaboration will enhance understanding of the pediatric behavioral health ecosystem, resources, and best practices for children and youth.
These findings will help leverage additional resources and create systems change for a reimagined system of care for children and youth in San Diego County.
Creating sustainable systems change is an integral part of rethinking and adjusting current methods to fundamentally alter the structures, policies, practices, and norms that make up a system. SBHI aims to transform the underlying components and dynamics of children’s behavioral health services to achieve sustainable and long-lasting improvements, allowing us to reimagine the ideal continuum of care for pediatric behavioral health services in San Diego County.
Early intervention services can provide children and youth insight into their mental health, develop coping skills and build resilience mitigating risks associated with long-term mental health disorders into adulthood.
“When families and caretakers find children’s mental health services and supports from schools, physicians and community organizations its due to perseverance, privilege and luck rather than a comprehensive system.”
(2024 Children Now, California Children’s Report Card.)
Currently, there is a disproportionate investment and attention to policy, resources and protections for adults with mental illness and substance abuse, despite the children’s mental health crisis that is well documented.
In 2021, 42% of adolescents reported feelings of sadness and hopelessness – which can be indicative of depressive disorder – up from 28% in 2011, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation analysis of a new federal survey of teen health that was released in 2024.
Suicides are the second leading cause of death among adolescents (2021).
Mental health issues are the #1 reason California Kids are hospitalized (2022).
65% of California’s young people with depression go without mental health treatment due to lack of access to services.
The SBHI has designed an ideal continuum of pediatric services. Prevention and early identification, or tier one, is universally prioritized to prevent kids from entering higher tiers. Additionally, connecting children and their families to the appropriate level of care is essential. As we move into the clinical system of care, there is outpatient, intensive clinical services, acute crisis response and inpatient services.
Integrated Care
School Based
Outpatient Mental Health
In-home Therapy
Wrap-around
Intensive Out-patient (IOP
Partial Hospitalization (PHP)
Residential
Mobile Crisis
Crisis Stabilization / Emergency Department
Hospitalization