Strategies

What Works for Health includes evidence-informed strategies to create communities where everyone can thrive.

117 Strategies matching mental health

Social service integration

Coordinate access to services across delivery systems and disciplinary boundaries (e.g., housing, disability, physical health, mental health, child welfare, workforce services, etc.)
Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence

Community Conditions

  • Safety and social support

Societal Rules

  • Institutional practices

Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits

Explore ways to increase Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program benefit amounts for aged, blind, or disabled individuals, including children, with little or no income
Evidence Rating:
Expert Opinion

Community Conditions

  • Income, employment and wealth

Societal Rules

  • Laws and policies
  • Budgets

Telecommuting

Allow employees to work outside a central office, using technology to interact with others inside and outside the organization; also called remote work, telework, or flexible working arrangements
Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence

Community Conditions

  • Income, employment and wealth

Societal Rules

  • Institutional practices

Telemental health services

Provide mental health care services (e.g., psychotherapy or counseling) via telephone or videoconference
Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence

Community Conditions

  • Clinical care
  • Climate

Societal Rules

  • Institutional practices

Transitional and subsidized jobs

Establish time-limited, subsidized, paid jobs to help individuals with barriers to employment transition to unsubsidized employment
Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported

Community Conditions

  • Income, employment and wealth

Trauma-informed approaches to community building

Support and strengthen traumatized and distressed residents and communities and address effects of community trauma (e.g., poverty, violence, structural racism, etc.) via a comprehensive, multi-stakeholder, and multilevel approach
Evidence Rating:
Expert Opinion

Community Conditions

  • Civic and community resources

Societal Rules

  • Institutional practices
  • Worldviews, culture and norms

Trauma-informed health care

Adopt universal trauma precautions and provide trauma-specific care to patients in health care organizations
Evidence Rating:
Expert Opinion

Community Conditions

  • Clinical care

Societal Rules

  • Institutional practices
  • Worldviews, culture and norms

Trauma-informed juvenile justice systems

Support a trauma-informed juvenile justice system to recognize and respond to trauma’s impact on youth through staff training and broad adoption of trauma-informed practices and policies
Evidence Rating:
Expert Opinion

Community Conditions

  • Safety and social support

Societal Rules

  • Institutional practices

Trauma-informed schools

Adopt a multi-tiered approach within schools to address the needs of trauma-exposed youth, including school-wide changes, screenings, and individual intensive support
Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence

Community Conditions

  • Education
  • Safety and social support

Societal Rules

  • Institutional practices

Treatment Foster Care

Place youth with mental, emotional, and behavioral health challenges in foster families that provide a structured, nurturing, therapeutic environment; also called Therapeutic Foster Care (TFC)
Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence

Community Conditions

  • Safety and social support