Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth
Linda O'Neal, Executive Director

Legislation passed in 2008 established a council on children’s mental health care to design a plan for a statewide system of mental health care for children. It requires the Council to develop a plan for a statewide system of care where children’s mental health services are child-centered, family-driven, and culturally and linguistically competent, and provides a coordinated system of care for children’s mental health needs in the state.

Council is co-chaired by the commissioner of the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services and the executive director of the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth.

The plan created by the Council must:

• Provide a service delivery system that focuses on the principles of care for a system of care and enumerates those principles;
• Include a core set of services and supports that appropriately and effectively address the mental health needs of children and families;
• Develop a financial resource map and cost analysis of all federal and state funded programs for children’s mental health, updated on an annual basis, to guide and support the plan.

Other Council duties include stimulating more effective use of resources, assisting in developing interagency agreements, determining whether programs are evidence-based, research-based and theory-based and submitting those findings.