Behavioral Assistance - Behavioral assistance is designed to augment Division of Child Behavioral Health Services Initiative services through the use of trained behavioral aides working directly with children and adolescents and their families in a home, school/work, or other community setting to carry out elements of a treatment or service plan. Services should generally be time limited, focused on specific goals and used to aid in the transition between levels of care or to facilitate adjustment to developmental tasks.

Care Coordination – the CSA contractor function of authorizing, managing, and coordinating the delivery of clinically necessary and appropriate covered services to enrollees as well as linking enrollees with other needed services such as physical health care and social support services. Care coordination places an emphasis on maintaining children and families in the community or returning him/her to the community. The CSA contractor’s staff who are responsible for performing this function are referred to as Care Coordinators.

Care management/managers: An employee of a Care Management Organization responsible for facilitating the process of Individual Service Plan design and implementation at the local level.

Care Management Organization (CMO) – An independent, community-based organization responsible for developing community resources and implementing Individual Service Plans for children with complex emotional and behavioral needs.

Child and Family Team - A team of family members, professionals, and community residents organized by a CMO to design and oversee implementation of an Individual Service Plan.

Children’s Crisis Intervention Services or CCIS – is an acute child and adolescent inpatient psychiatric unit located in hospitals or free-standing facilities, which provides screening, stabilization, assessment and short term intensive treatment.

Continuity of Care – the plan of care for a particular enrollee that should assure progress without unreasonable interruption.

Cultural Competency – a set of interpersonal skills that allow individuals to increase their understanding, appreciation, acceptance of and respect for cultural differences and similarities within, among and between groups and the sensitivity to how these differences influence relationships with enrollees. This requires a willingness and ability to draw on community-based values, traditions and customs, to devise strategies to better meet culturally diverse enrollee needs, and to work with knowledgeable persons of and from the community in developing focused interactions, communications, and other supports.

Department of Human Services (DHS) – is in the executive branch of New Jersey State government and includes the Division of Medical Assistance and Health Services (DMAHS), the Division of Youth and Family Services (DYFS), the Division of Family Development (DFD), the Division of Mental Health Services (DMHS), and the Division of Developmental Disabilities (DDD).

Detention – Facility used to detain juveniles pending court hearing, adjudication, or sentencing.

DYFS – Division of Youth and Family Services, a division within the New Jersey Department of Human Services, which provides comprehensive social services for children, families and adults, and child protective and child welfare services. DYFS participants eligible for Medicaid include children and adolescents in out-of-home placement as well as those who live in a home setting but are at risk of out-of-home placement.

Family – child or children and biological parent(s), legal guardian(s), adoptive parent(s), foster parent(s), or resource family or person acting in the place of a parent such as the person with whom the child or children legally resides and/or a person legally responsible for the child's welfare.

Family Support Organization (FSO)–An organization under contract with DHS to provide peer support and other services to children and families as a system partner in the Division of Child Behavioral Health Services.

Formal services – Traditional clinical or social services delivered by professionals to children and families, reimbursable by Medicaid or DHS division contract.

Individualized Service Plan (ISP) – A comprehensive, strength-based plan for children and families that integrates clinical and social services with family and community resources to achieve goals across child serving systems. ISPs are driven by needs and strengths of the children and families, rather than the boundaries of discrete programs, agencies, or child-serving systems.

Informal services or resources – Services delivered under an Individualized Service Plan by family members, community residents, and/ or community organizations not reimbursable under Medicaid or other DHS provider contracts.

Intensive In-Home Services - In-home services are provided on an outreach basis to work with individuals and their families in the home and community. They are designed to avert treatment in residential or inpatient settings or to facilitate the return of individuals receiving inpatient or residential care. Services are multi-faceted and include therapy, supportive counseling, skills training and facilitation of access to other needed services and supports. Some in-home approaches are limited to short-term, intensive approaches with the goal of stabilizing and connecting the individual and family with ongoing services within a few weeks. Other programs provide longer-term interventions with the service intensity varying with clinical need.

Juvenile Justice Commission-Executive branch agency providing services, sanctions, and facilities for juveniles adjudicated delinquent or otherwise under the jurisdiction of the family court.

Juvenile Justice System –refers to the family court and probation in the judicial branch of government as well as the executive branch agencies within the Juvenile Justice commission and local county-based detention and diversion facilities.

Legal Guardian – a person appointed by a court to make financial and personal decisions for a person determined by a court to be legally incompetent.

Life Domain– A functional area of a child’s life in the community important for social development, including social relations, family life, mental health, physical health, creativity, spirituality, education, and others.

Memorandum (a) of Understanding (MOU)– A document between two organizations that outlines their agreed-upon working relationship, including roles and responsibilities for specific tasks and activities.
MICA – Mentally Ill Chemical Abusers

Mobile Crisis/ Emergency Services – These are crisis and protective interventions and supports necessary to prevent serious psychiatric or medical consequences to children and adolescents and their families who are experiencing acute mental health problems. In order to protect children and their families, relieve their distress and help restore their levels of functioning. Mobile crisis/emergency services are available 24 hours a day with a capacity to provide interventions in the home and other community settings.

Natural Supports–The child and family social network of friend and extended family that provide support as an extension of naturally occurring relationships.

NJ Family Care - A Division of Medical Assistance and Health Services administered program that provides medical benefits to parents of children who have health insurance coverage, to certain children who do not qualify for other health insurance program, and to unemployed adults whose income is less than established income standards and who do not have access to affordable health care coverage.

Outpatient Treatment - Clinical services including individual, group, or family therapy and other counseling as well as medication prescription administration and review.

Partial Care - A continuum of day treatment that includes intensive treatment within a structured therapeutic setting designed to serve as alternative to hospital care as well as programs that offer an integrated set of educational, treatment and family interventions on a longer term basis.

Psychiatric Emergency Service - Emergency response to a crisis situation requiring immediate attention to child and or family risks

Residential Treatment Center – An RTC provides room, board, care and treatment services for 13 or more children on a 24 hour a day basis. These include facilities providing educational services on or off grounds as well as programs that provide adventure-based treatment. The Division of Youth and Family Services contracts with residential treatment centers in New Jersey and out-of-state. Also facilities certified by DYFS or DMHS that provide voluntary inpatient psychiatric care under JCAHO accreditation to children and youth 21 years of age and under.

Respite Services - Temporary supervision including crisis stabilization and temporary residential services, provided to individuals living with family members, family care providers or significant others, when short-term relief is needed. Respite care can be provided in-home or out-of-home during the day, evening, and/or overnight.

Serious Emotional Disturbance (SED) – a mental, behavioral or emotional disorder, affecting children and youth 18 years of age and under, of sufficient duration that has resulted in functional impairment which substantially interferes with or limits the child’s role in functioning in family, school, or community activities

Service Authorization – authorization granted by the CSA contractor in advance of the rendering of a service after appropriate review by a Care Coordinator or physician.

Support – application of resources to maintain the enrollee in the least restrictive environment and to prevent the enrollee from failing to reach identified health goals and to assist the enrollee in achieving desired outcomes.

Therapeutic Foster Care/Treatment Homes - Treatment for children and adolescents with emotional disorders in the homes of trained families within the community. Treatment parents are seen as the primary therapeutic agents and are specially trained, licensed and clinically supervised. Clinical, supportive and case management services are provided to each child and treatment family.

Youth Services Commission (YSC)- A county-based planning body under the jurisdiction of the Juvenile Justice Commission that plans services and sanctions at the community level.