Every community and state has a variety of formal groups that define priorities for mental health services, as well as local legislators and elected officials, influential community members and others who influence what kinds of programs get funded, and what needs are prioritized. Those groups and individuals can play an important role in sustaining the positive outcomes of your project if you understand their priorities and involve them effectively with your program.
How can policy be used to sustain your program? If your initiative involved training teachers in an evidence-based curriculum, then making it policy that certain grades or other groupings of students must complete that curriculum will help to sustain it. If you trained staff to screen preschoolers for developmentally appropriate social and emotional skills, then mandating through agency policy that children are administered that screen at ages 2 and 4 will help ensure that this practice continues.
For examples of how grantees have used Public Policy as a sustainability tool, read these Grantees at Work stories:
- Building Relationships with Policymakers
- Expanding Your Program's Reach by Engaging Policymakers and Partnerships with Community Resources
Click on any of these listings for more information:
- Understanding the policy process
- Connecting to policy makers including legislators
- Understanding policy makers' priorities
- Marketing to policy makers
- Informing policy makers
Understanding the policy process
Technical Assistance Sampler on Thinking About and Accessing Policy Related to Addressing Barriers to Learning. Center for Mental Health in Schools (Guide) http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/pdfdocs/Sampler/Samp1a.pdf
Institutionalizing community-based prevention through policy change Pentz, M. A. (2000). Journal of Community Psychology, 28, 257-270. (Journal) - full text not available
http://library.promoteprevent.org/item.php?id=118587&catid=116385Analysis of the definitions of mental illness used in state parity laws. (Report)
http://psychservices.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/53/9/1089
Connecting to policy makers including legislators
2003 State-by-state Medicaid Fact Sheets (Fact Sheet)
http://www.kff.org/mfs/index.jspBuilding NGO/CBO capacity for organizational outreach: Management and training design tools (Manual)
http://www.unhabitat.org/pmss/getPage.asp?page=
bookView&book=1091National Dropout Prevention Center/Network (Web site)
http://www.dropoutprevention.org/Healthy schools: State-level school health policies
http://www.nasbe.org/HealthySchools/States/State_Policy.aspTeaming up: Using the IDEA and Medicaid to secure comprehensive mental health services for children and youth (Report)
http://www.bazelon.org/issues/children/publications/teamingup/report.pdf
Understanding policy makers' priorities
Special analysis: Child welfare managed care reform initiatives. Schulzinger, R., McCarthy, J., de la Cruz Irvine, M., Meyers, J., & Vincent, P. (1999). Georgetown , MD : Georgetown University Child Development Center (Report) - full text not available
http://gucchd.georgetown.edu/object_view.html?objectID=2574Federal activities addressing violence in schools (Web site)
http://www.safeyouth.org/scripts/school/index.aspHealth Care Reform Tracking Project: Tracking state managed care reforms as they affect children and adolescents with behavioral health disorders and their families. - 1999 impact analysis (Report)
http://rtckids.fmhi.usf.edu/rtcpubs/hctrking/pubs/99pubs/99Impact
AnalysisExecSumSA.pdfPractical guide for crisis response in our schools: A comprehensive School Crisis Response Plan (Website)
http://www.schoolcrisisresponse.com/
Accessing Medicaid's child mental health services: The experience of parents in two states. Semansky R., Koyanagi C. (2003) Psychiatric Services. 54(4): 475-476 (Journal) - full text not available
http://library.promoteprevent.org/item.php?id=118567&catid=116385Financing mental health for children and adolescents (Report)
http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/pdfdocs/briefs/FinanceBrief.pdfFunding Sources: Cost benefits of substance abuse prevention (Web site)
http://www.northeastcapt.org/PRODUCTS/faq/faq77.htmlCreating dedicated local revenue sources for out of school time initiatives (Report)
http://www.financeproject.org/Publications/Brief1.pdf
Making the right choices: Reforming Medicaid to improve outcomes for people who need mental health care (Report)
http://www.bazelon.org/issues/medicaid/publications/choicesforweb.pdfNew directions in enhancing educational results: Policymakers' guide to restructuring student support resources to better address barriers to learning (Guide)
http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/pdfdocs/policymakers/restrucguide.pdf
