Step Up! Children's Intensive Service Program

About the Program

Category: Health (Best in Category)

Year: 2009

In 2003, the Oregon legislature directed the state Department of Human Services to “substantially increase the availability and quality of individualized, intensive and culturally competent home and community-based services so that children are served in the most natural environment possible.” As a response, a legislative directive led to the Children’s System Change Initiative, a series of policy initiatives enacted by the Oregon Department of Human Services, Addictions, and Mental Health Division. In 2005, the Clackamas County Mental Health Organization, part of the county’s Department of Human Services, began managing care for children with the most severe emotional and behavioral disorders. Since that time, MHO has experienced a decrease in the number of children being served in psychiatric residential treatment facilities and an increase in the number of children being served in their homes, schools, and communities, meeting the goal of keeping children “at home, in school, and out of trouble.”