Welcome to the
Connect4Families Toolkit
Simplifying access to behavioral health services and facilitating collaboration among families, providers, and schools
You have come to the right place if you:
- Are looking for mental/behavioral health* services for your child, patient, or student
- Want to partner more effectively with others who also have responsibility for the well-being of the children and adolescents in your care
The Connect4Families Toolkit helps families, providers, and schools collaborate and connect children to behavioral health services and supports in Connecticut.
Find Behavioral Health Services and Supports
Find links to behavioral health services, treatment, crisis support, and other resources for your child, patient, or student.
The Why, What, How and When of Effective Collaboration
Find best practices, strategies, and sample communication forms to promote effective collaboration between providers, schools, and families.
Electronic Tools to Support Collaboration
Learn about best practices for using electronic communication tools to help coordinate care, including warm handoffs, e-consults, and available platforms.
Confidentiality Protections and Consent to Share
A review of confidentiality and privacy laws and protections that apply to behavioral health, primary care, and school providers in Connecticut.
Collaboration Tips from Parents, Youth and Providers
We asked parents, youth, and providers to share their tips on how to communicate and collaborate more effectively.
The Evolving Coding and Billing Landscape for Providers
Billing codes to be pursued in Connecticut to reimburse providers for collaborative work.
*This toolkit often uses the term ‘behavioral health’ instead of ‘mental health’ to address a broad spectrum of concerns related to the emotional and behavioral needs of children, adolescents, and families. This includes topics related to overall well-being, resilience, mental health promotion and intervention, substance use prevention and treatment, as well as support for individuals and their families.
About the Connect4Families Toolkit
The Connect4Families Toolkit was produced by the Connecting to Care initiative’s Family Care Connections (FCC) Workgroup as part of a grant to promote communication and collaboration among child-serving sectors and support families and youth as full partners in driving the transformation of Connecticut’s system of care.
The toolkit content was developed by nationally recognized integrated care expert Barbara Ward-Zimmerman, Ph.D., with support from FCC Workgroup partners including The Child Health and Development Institute (CHDI), Carelon Behavioral Health, The Consultation Center at Yale, and FAVOR, Inc.
Carolyn Greene, Ph.D., Department of Psychiatry, UConn School of Medicine, created the original versions of the sample communication forms in Section 2. Laura Knapp, Parent Consultant with CT Parent Advocacy Center, was instrumental in contributing collaboration tips presented in Section 5.
Connecting to Care was funded by a Systems of Care Expansion and Sustainability grant awarded to the Connecticut Department of Children and Families (DCF) by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
The resources and links included in this toolkit are provided for convenience and do not constitute medical advice. The toolkit developers do not endorse any particular service or organization. While we make every effort to keep information and links current, toolkit users are encouraged to verify any information found here with the provider organization. The toolkit developers are not responsible for the content on other organizations’ websites.
Connecting to Care Grant-Funded Partners
