title: Building capacity in child welfare to screen for mental health challenges: lessons learned.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Children involved in child welfare services are at high risk for emotional and behavioral problems that are not adequately identified and treated. As part of a federal review, Youth and Family Services (YFS), child protective services in Charlotte, North Carolina, was informed that they must improve their response to youth needs, particularly regarding mental health, or face losing millions of dollars in federal funding.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  We have described herein an effort to build agency capacity for identifying mental health needs through a community-university partnership and share lessons learned about implementing the new process.
  
  
  METHODS
  Community and university partners came together to develop a mental health screening pilot for one Youth and Family Services (YFS) district.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Community-university partners across all levels of a hierarchically structured agency must work together to align implementation of partner activities with system-level goals. Recommendations for collaboration, from a stakeholder perspective, are also described.
authors.forename: Taylor Bishop
authors.initials: TB
authors.lastname: Scott
authors.forename: Michelle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Abraczinskas
authors.forename: Virginia A
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.forename: James R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Cook
authors.forename: Ryan P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Kilmer
authors.forename: Erskine N
authors.initials: EN
authors.lastname: Daniels
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D057191:Capacity Building / Q000458:organization & administration*; D002648:Child; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002669:Child Welfare; D003256:Community Participation; D055812:Community-Based Participatory Research; D003159:Community-Institutional Relations; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening; D008603:Mental Health; D019964:Mood Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D009657:North Carolina / Q000453:epidemiology; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000458:organization & administration; D014495:Universities / Q000458:organization & administration