On June 23, 2025, your UPE team met with the department about changes to the above policy. This was essentially an overhaul of the existing P&P. The department is asking social workers to assess whether parents or legal guardians are presenting with non-acute behavioral health concerns and to ask them if they would like to participate in an assessment. If the parents/legal guardians say yes, you are to complete a CS490 and email that to the CPS-BH Team, who will then complete the consultation and assessment. If the parent or legal guardian says no, then you do nothing more.
Your UPE team made sure that number one (1), this is totally voluntary, to which the department said yes. We requested that this information be included in the P&P. UPE also wanted to ensure that it was different from an Access referral. The department stated that an Access referral is typically for children, not adults. This is to ensure that you, as Social Workers, are not performing redundant work.
The department agreed to place something in the P&P stating that this is not mandatory, but instead at the discretion of the Social Worker. The new P&P will be published by the end of the month.
Thank you for your advocacy, Sarah Singleton, Sondra Peters and Trudy Mallory-Jones
