Pathways to Acute Care – Understanding Emergency and In-Patient Service Use Among Youth Involved in New Jersey’s Children’s System of Care (CSOC)​

New Jersey’s Children’s System of Care (CSOC) provides behavioral health, substance use, and intellectual and developmental disability services for youth under the age of 21 and their families. CSOC services are situated within a broader ecosystem of behavioral healthcare that includes acute and emergency care services provided by hospitals. By integrating CSOC data with hospital discharge and emergency medical services data, this research project aims to provide a more comprehensive picture of behavioral healthcare use among youth involved in CSOC. The specific aims are to: 1) estimate the prevalence and examine the timing of emergency department visits and inpatient hospitalizations related to behavioral health among CSOC-involved youth, and whether certain subgroups of youth are more likely to use this type of acute care before, during, and after leaving CSOC services; 2) map out common service utilization patterns and pathways to understand what services youth receive and when they receive them; and 3) identify the circumstances that predict when a youth will be more likely to need behavioral health-related emergency and hospital care. By identifying which youth are at highest risk of behavioral health-related hospitalizations and emergency department visits and the circumstances that lead to these crises, the Department of Children and Families can better target existing CSOC services to prevent behavioral health emergencies among youth. This will enable the Department to make evidence-based decisions that improve outcomes for vulnerable youth and their families in New Jersey.