Urgent Behavioral Health Crisis Centers for Children in Hartford, New Haven, New London, Waterbury

In 2024, the Child Health and Development Institute (CHDI) began working with the Connecticut Department of Children and Families (DCF) to develop a Performance Improvement Center for the state's Urgent Behavioral Health Crisis Centers for Children (UCCs), which opened in 2023. 

Urgent Crisis Centers are walk-in outpatient clinics offering crisis stabilization support, comprehensive mental health assessments, safety planning, connections to additional services, and follow-up support for children and adolescents experiencing urgent mental or behavioral health crises.

Connecticut's first four UCCs are strategically located around the state in Hartford (at The Village for Families and Children), New Haven (at Yale New Haven Health), New London (at the Child & Family Agency of Southeastern Connecticut), and Waterbury (at Wellmore Behavioral Health). 

In their role as the UCC Performance Improvement Center, CHDI is working with DCF and UCC providers to establish best practices, engage in continuous quality improvement, and promote positive outcomes for children, youth, and families. This work includes ongoing data analysis and reporting, data-driven consultation with providers, and coordinating training for UCC staff.

As one of the organizations that pushed for the creation of dedicated urgent crisis centers for children in Connecticut for many years, CHDI is proud to partner with the state and its dedicated, highly skilled UCC providers to ensure positive, equitable outcomes for the children and youth they serve.

Urgent Crisis Centers are available to families of children who are experiencing a behavioral health crisis but do not require emergency department level of care. 

Licensed and funded by DCF, the centers function as walk-in clinics, providing youths and their families with immediate access to resources while they are experiencing a behavioral health crisis, such as thoughts of suicide or self-injury, feelings of depression or anxiety, out-of-control behaviors; substance misuse, etc.

The centers, DCF officials point out, are aimed at diverting youths and their families from making visits to emergency rooms to address behavioral health crises. Current capacity for the four centers is 72 daily slots, according to the DCF website. 

The Child Health and Development Institute (CHDI) provides a bridge to better and more equitable behavioral health and well-being for children, youth, and families in Connecticut and beyond.