Crisis and Residential Services for Children, Young Adults, and Families

The Office of Children, Youth, and Families (OCYF) is aimed at supporting Georgia’s continuum of behavioral health services for children and adolescents by making mental health crisis and residential services accessible for children, young adults, and families who are uninsured.

Our goals are to:

• Ensuring crisis stabilization for children and adolescents ages 5-17
• Managing inpatient and residential treatment coordination
• Collaborating with state agencies and providers for care coordination and out-of-state placements when necessary

OCYF holds contracts with various Crisis Stabilization Unit (CSU) and Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility (PRTF) providers to assist in reaching this goal.

DBHDD currently holds contracts with five Crisis Stabilization Units (CSUs) in Georgia. Each serves youth from all over the state who are in need of short-term acute stabilization of behavioral health problems. Ages for these services range between 5-17.

There currently are six Psychiatric Residential Treatment (PRTF) Services under contract with DBHDD provide comprehensive mental health and substance abuse treatment to children, adolescents, and young adults ages 5-21 who, due to severe emotional disturbance, are in need of quality active treatment that can only be provided in an inpatient treatment setting and for whom alternative, less restrictive forms of treatment have been tried and found unsuccessful or are not medically indicated. 

DBHDD also works with several State Contract Beds to ensure that all youth are served within a timely matter.