Specialty Mental Health Services for Children and Youth
Intensive Care Coordination (ICC)
ICC is a targeted case management service that facilitates assessment of, care planning for, and coordination of services to beneficiaries under age 21 who are eligible for the full scope of Medi-Cal services and who meet medical necessity criteria for this service.
ICC service components include assessing; service planning and implementation; monitoring and adapting; and transition. ICC services are provided through the principles of the Integrated Core Practice Model (ICPM), including the establishment of the Child and Family Team (CFT) to ensure facilitation of a collaborative relationship among a child, their family, and involved child-serving systems.
The CFT includes formal supports (such as the care coordinator, providers, and case managers from child-serving agencies), natural supports (such as family members, neighbors, friends, and clergy), and other individuals who work together to develop and implement the client plan and are responsible for supporting children and their families in attaining their goals. ICC also provides an ICC Coordinator who:
- Ensures that medically necessary services are accessed, coordinated, and delivered in a strength-based, individualized, client-driven, and culturally and linguistically competent manner.
- Ensures that services and supports are guided by the needs of the child.
- Facilitates a collaborative relationship among the child, their family, and systems involved in providing services to them.
- Supports the parent or caregiver in meeting their child’s needs.
- Helps establish the CFT and provides ongoing support.
- Organizes and matches care across providers and child serving systems to allow the child to be served in their community.
Intensive Home Based Services (IHBS)
IHBS are individualized, strength-based interventions designed to correct or ameliorate mental health conditions that interfere with a child or youth’s functioning and are aimed at helping the child or youth build skills necessary for successful functioning in the home and community, and improving the child or youth’s family’s ability to help the child or youth successfully function in the home and community.
IHBS services are provided according to an individualized treatment plan developed in accordance with the ICPM by the CFT in coordination with the family’s overall service plan, which may include, but are not limited to assessment, plan development, therapy, rehabilitation, and collateral. IHBS is provided to beneficiaries under 21 who are eligible for full scope Medi-Cal services and who meet medical necessity criteria.
Therapeutic Foster Care (TFC)
The TFC service model allows for the provision of short-term, intensive, trauma-informed, and individualized specialty mental health services (SMHS) for children up to age 21 who have complex emotional and behavioral needs. Services include plan development, rehabilitation, and collateral. In TFC, children are placed with trained, intensely supervised, and supported TFC parents.
TFC is a short-term, trauma-informed, individualized, highly coordinated SMHS provided by a specially trained and intensely supported TFC parent. TFC is available as an Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment (EPSDT) benefit to children and youth under the age of 21, who are Medi-Cal eligible and meet medical necessity criteria.
- TFC is intended for children and youth who have complex emotional and behavioral needs, and require intensive and frequent mental health support in a family environment.
- There must be a CFT in place to guide and plan TFC service provision.
- It is not necessary for a child or youth to have an open child welfare case, or to be involved in the juvenile justice system, to be considered for TFC.
- Children and youth receiving TFC also must receive ICC and other medically necessary SMHS, as set forth in the client plan.
Therapeutic Behavioral Services (TBS)
TBS are intensive, individualized, short-term outpatient treatment interventions for beneficiaries up to age 21 with full scope Medi-Cal. Individuals receiving these services have serious emotional disturbances, are experiencing stressful transitions or life crises, and need additional short-term, specific support services to achieve outcomes specified in their client plans.
If the child or youth is living at home, a TBS staff person can work one-to-one with the child or youth to reduce severe behavior problems to try to keep the child or youth from needing a higher level of care.
If the child or youth is placed outside of their home living in a group home or a short-term residential therapeutic program for children, adolescents, and young people with very serious emotional problems, a TBS staff person can work with the child or youth so they may be able to move to a lower level of care, such as a foster home or back home. TBS will helps families, caregivers, or guardians learn new ways of addressing problem behavior and ways of increasing the kinds of behavior that will allow the child or youth to be successful. The child or youth, the TBS staff person, and the family, caregiver, or guardian will work together as a team to address problematic behaviors for a short period, until the child or youth no longer needs TBS.
