Values and Principles for Oregon's System of Care

Target Population

Children and youth birth to 18 who have emotional and behavioral health problems and who touch at least two systems.  This includes children and youth who are at risk as well as those who already have a diagnosed problem.  

Core Values 

1. The goal of Oregon's system of care is a community of support for each child/family that honors the family's sense of its own culture. 

2. The system of care should be child guided and family driven, with the needs of the child and family dictating the types and mix of services provided. 

3. The system of care should be community based, with the focus of services as well as management and decision making responsibility resting at the community level. 

4. The system of care should ensure that individuals are treated respectfully, compassionately, and effectively in a manner that recognizes, affirms and values the worth of children, individuals, families and communities – protecting and preserving the dignity of each. 

Operating Principles  

Services/Supports

1. Children/youth with emotional and behavioral health challenges should have access to a seamless and comprehensive array of services that address the child's physical, emotional, social and educational needs. 

2. Children/youth with emotional and behavioral health challenges should receive individualized services in accordance with the unique needs and potentials of each child and guided by an individualized service plan. 

3. Children/youth with emotional and behavioral health challenges should receive within the least restrictive, most normative environment that is clinically appropriate. 

4. The families and surrogate families of children with emotional and behavioral health challenges should be full participants in all aspects of the planning and delivery of services. 

5. Children/youth with emotional and behavioral health challenges should receive services that are integrated with linkages between child-serving agencies and programs and mechanisms for planning, developing, and coordinating services. 

6. Children/youth with emotional and behavioral health challenges should be provided with case management or similar mechanism to ensure that multiple services/supports are delivered in a coordinated and therapeutic manner and that these services/supports meet the child where they are at and in accordance with their changing needs. 

7. Early identification and intervention for children with emotional and behavioral health challenges should be promoted by the system of care in order to enhance the likelihood of positive outcome. 

8. Children/youth with emotional and behavioral health challenges should be ensured continuity of service and supports to meet needs from birth to maturity. 

9. The rights of children/youth with emotional and behavioral health challenges should be protected, and effective advocacy efforts for children and youth with emotional disturbances should be promoted.

10. Children/youth with emotional and behavioral health challenges should receive services without regard to race, religion, national origin, sex, physical disability or other characteristics, and services should be sensitive and responsive to cultural differences and special needs.

11. Youth/children and families have access to empirically-supported treatments, programs, and practices, and they are provided with the information they need to make well-informed choices between various available options.

12. Youth/children and families have access to culturally validated approaches that are based upon principles, laws and values of specific communities  

System Wide    

13. Agencies providing mental health services to children/youth with emotional and behavioral health challenges should be held accountable for providing culturally competent services. 

14. Services, and the system, should be oriented toward outcomes that are supported by the child/youth/family and continuously monitored. 

15. State and local agencies, and families, have a common understanding of success for children/youth/families.  They share data and information to support these definitions. 

16. The system of care should be supported by a financing system that is sustainable. 

17. Resources should focus on and follow the child/youth/family. 

18. The system of care should provide common, continuous and comprehensive workforce development and training. 

19. The system supports high quality implementation of empirically-supported treatments, programs, and practices, and works to increase the availability of culturally validated approaches that meet the identified needs of children, youth, and families.  

* Adapted from Stroul, B. A., and Friedman, R. M. (1986). A system of care for seriously emotionally disturbed children and youth. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Child Development Center.