CAASP Community-Based Services 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Multi-systemic Therapy (MST) delivered in a CAASP community setting targets which population?
- Preschool children with developmental delays
- Adolescents with serious antisocial behavior and their families (Correct answer)
- Adults with co-occurring disorders
- Children with autism spectrum disorder only
Correct answer: Adolescents with serious antisocial behavior and their families
MST is an evidence-based community intervention designed for youth ages 12–17 with serious antisocial or delinquent behavior, delivered primarily in the home.
Question 2: According to CAASP principles, which agency should lead care coordination for a child involved in multiple child-serving systems?
- The agency with the largest budget
- A designated lead agency or care coordinator identified in the service plan (Correct answer)
- The juvenile court exclusively
- The school district only
Correct answer: A designated lead agency or care coordinator identified in the service plan
CAASP emphasizes a designated lead entity to coordinate across child welfare, mental health, education, and juvenile justice to avoid fragmented care.
Question 3: Peer support specialists in a children's community behavioral health system are individuals who:
- Hold master's-level clinical licenses
- Have lived experience with mental health challenges and are trained to support others (Correct answer)
- Serve only as administrative staff
- Are exclusively parents of children in the system
Correct answer: Have lived experience with mental health challenges and are trained to support others
Peer support specialists use their own recovery or lived experience to model hope and provide practical support to youth or families navigating the system.
Question 4: A family advocate in a system of care primarily helps families by:
- Making clinical diagnoses
- Navigating service systems, understanding rights, and accessing entitlements (Correct answer)
- Prescribing medication
- Conducting school psychological evaluations
Correct answer: Navigating service systems, understanding rights, and accessing entitlements
Family advocates empower caregivers to navigate complex systems, understand their child's rights, and connect with needed resources.
Question 5: School-based mental health services are considered community-based because they:
- Are funded entirely by state mental health agencies
- Meet children in a setting they already attend, reducing access barriers (Correct answer)
- Replace community mental health centers
- Only serve children without insurance
Correct answer: Meet children in a setting they already attend, reducing access barriers
Placing services in schools removes transportation and stigma barriers by delivering care where children naturally spend most of their day.
Question 6: In a CAASP system, 'natural supports' refers to:
- State-funded respite providers
- Informal relationships such as extended family, neighbors, coaches, and faith communities (Correct answer)
- Evidence-based treatment programs only
- Medicaid waiver services
Correct answer: Informal relationships such as extended family, neighbors, coaches, and faith communities
Natural supports are unpaid community relationships that sustain families long after formal services end, integral to the wraparound model.
Question 7: Which federal legislation most directly funded the development of community-based systems of care for children with serious emotional disturbances?
- IDEA Part B
- The Child and Adolescent Service System Program (CASSP) initiative through NIMH and later Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) grants (Correct answer)
- No Child Left Behind Act
- Title IV-E of the Social Security Act
Correct answer: The Child and Adolescent Service System Program (CASSP) initiative through NIMH and later Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) grants
CASSP, initiated through NIMH in 1984 and expanded via SAMHSA's Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services grants, was the primary federal driver of systems-of-care development.
CAASP Community-Based Services 3
Multi-systemic Therapy (MST) delivered in a CAASP community setting targets which population?