Mental Health Crisis Response Strategies for System-Involved Youth

Brooke Hailey, PhD

Training Description

This training provides social workers, foster parents, and behavioral health service providers with a practical, trauma-informed approach to recognizing and responding to mental health crises in system-involved youth. Participants will review suicide risk assessment, self-harm, psychosis, severe anxiety, emotional dysregulation, aggression, and substance-related crises while learning evidence-based de-escalation and safety planning strategies. Through case examples and discussion, attendees will strengthen their ability to determine appropriate levels of care and collaborate effectively with multidisciplinary teams. The knowledge and skills presented are designed to improve outcomes and promote safety for foster youth and other vulnerable populations.

Learning Objectives

• Identify at least six common mental health crises experienced by system-involved youth and describe evidence-based response strategies for each.

• Apply a structured crisis assessment framework to evaluate suicide risk, self-harm, psychosis, and acute emotional dysregulation across three case examples.