If this is an Emergency, or you are worried about somebody hurting themselves or someone else, please call 911.
Preparation
Crisis Services
Crisis Text Line : Text “MN” to 741741 to connect to a counselor.
Hennepin County Child Crisis Services: 612-348-2233
Children’s Mobile Crisis Response Teams can help you, your child, your family or a child you care about get through a mental health crisis
Hennepin County COPE Hotline : 612-596-1223
Available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Call to have staff come to your home, school or other public place, calm the situation and help you to decide what to do next, and connect you with resources.
Family Response and Stabilization Services (FRSS): 651-318-7217
Immediate in-person response within one hour anywhere in Hennepin County. Available to families with children ages 5-18 at no cost. Staff will de-escalate and address the immediate concern, engage and support your family over the next 72 hours, and connect you to other supports, including an optional eight-week stabilization service.
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988
Call or text 988 to reach trained counselors that will listen, understand, provide support, and connect individuals to resources if necessary.
Minneapolis Crisis Nursery: 763-591-0100
Supports families in crisis 24 hours per day, 365 days per year through free, voluntary services that include a crisis hotline, 72 hour residential child care, in-home visits, and connection to further resources.
Spanish Helpline: 1-877-AYUDESE (293-3373)
Asian LifeNet: 877-990-8585
Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean & Fujianese
Culturally Specific Children’s Mental Health Services
Offers a variety of available wellness and mental health services in and around the Twin Cities. The site allows individuals seeking services and those looking to connect others with services to a variety of culturally specific mental health services.
This comprehensive program offers intensive therapeutic, skill building and rehabilitative services to help strengthen the emotional, behavioral and social functioning of East African youth and their families.
Inclusive Therapists Directory
This resource allows people to find therapy providers that share and/or accept their identities.
This resource allows people to find therapy providers of color.
This resource connects women of color with culturally sensitive healthcare providers, evidence-based content, and community support.
MN Mental Health Providers of Color
List of POC providers that includes their services and their contact information.
LGBTQIA+ Services
National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color Network
A national directory of LGBTQIA therapy providers.
GLBT National Youth Talkline: 1-800-246-7743
The Trevor Project Hotline: 1-866-488-7386
Trans Lifeline: 877-565-8860
School-Linked Mental Health Services
School-Linked Behavioral Health Services
School-Linked Behavioral Health programs connect or locate effective mental health services in schools. They work to increase accessibility for children and youth who are uninsured or underinsured, improve clinical and functional outcomes for children and youth with a mental health or substance use disorder diagnosis, and improve identification of mental health and substance use issues for children and youth. School-Linked Behavioral Health services have proven particularly effective in reaching children who have never accessed mental health services. Many children with serious behavioral health needs are first identified through this program.
Hennepin County School-Linked Behavioral Health Directory
This site provides a map of all state funded School-Linked Behavioral Health Services in Hennepin County.
Youth Mental Health and Wellbeing
Through a partnership with Allina Health and Hennepin County Public Health, the Change to Chill program was created to provide diverse, culturally appropriate online resources for youth that can be utilized by teens themselves or with the adults that support them. The Change to Chill site offers a variety of activities and resources that are now available in Spanish and Somali. Additionally, Change to Chill has worked to provide culturally specific resources to African American, Native/Indigenous, and LGBTQ+ youth.
Change to Chill also provides schools or after-school programs with Calm Kits with tools to use in regulating student stress and mood that have received excellent feedback as well as elementary wellness kits that provide exercises and activities to address children’s learning needs. Check out the Change to Chill website here where you can find a variety of activities and resources to address stress and mental health needs as well as activities and resources that promote mindfulness, identity, and more.
Provides individual and family therapy, mental health diversity, equity, and inclusion training, and community transformative sessions.
This site allows individuals to learn more about mental health and how to respectfully talk about it. You can listen to and read other people’s stories and find local resources for yourself or someone you know.
Minnesota Teen Mental Health Directory
This directory allows individuals to find providers and organizations that will serve them whether they need advocacy, therapy, or any other resource.
Hennepin County launched See Mental Health, a yearlong mental health awareness campaign targeting youth, veterans, and seniors. The multimedia campaign strives to normalize the ways that everyone grapples with their emotional wellbeing at varying times and degrees — and that encouraging conversations can help reduce stigmas and isolation. For more on the campaign and happenings, visit www.seementalhealth.org
Youth Rights to Access Mental Health & Health Care
Minors in Minnesota have the right to access health and mental health services without parent or guardian permission. Minnesota laws allow youth to access confidential services for specific health and mental health care. Learn more about Minnesota’s consent and confidentiality laws by clicking here.
Providers can access the following guide to better understand the age ranges for offering health care, mental health and/or substance use care; https://mnforensicnurses.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/minor-consent-and-confidentiality.pdf.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT MANDATORY REPORTING LAWS
Adults working with children and youth are mandated reporters, which means if they are required to report any abuse or maltreatment of a child or adolescent. Mandated reporters include youth workers, coaches, mental health providers, health care providers, educators, child care workers and clergy.
We encourage you to seek training on mandated reporting requirements to better prepare yourself as you work with children, youth and families in Hennepin County. Free online training is available on what is considered abuse or maltreatment and provides information on how and where to file a report.
Tips on How To Make A Referral
- Develop an intentional process for making referrals.
- This may involve writing policies for referrals.
- Ask the young people (and/or their caregivers) in your program about how they would like you to approach, share and support them regarding referrals. Incorporate their input into your process.
- Ask staff about what support they need to make effective referrals. Incorporate their input into your process.
- Check with your organizational values and policies, as well as your local or state rules about making referrals. Ensure your process aligns with these rules.
- Establish referral systems
- Determine who on your team will be the key person(s) for understanding and maintaining your referral policies.
- Develop a list of professional help options. Gather basic information on eligibility requirements for professional help options (ex. Age, location, insurance, etc.). Assign someone to keep this list up-to-date regularly (verifying contact info, hours, locations, eligibility, etc.).
- Develop a system on how to document and track referrals at your organization.
- Explore and build relationships with professional help providers
- Call providers on your list to determine if they would be a good fit for the young people you serve.
- Ask them about their eligibility requirements and their capacity.
- If they are a good fit, establish a process about how to best make referrals to them.
- Remember ALGEE, specifically:
- Approach, assess for risk of suicide or harm, and assist.
- Listen non-judgmentally.
- Give reassurance and information.
- When you ‘Encourage professional help’
- Follow the young person’s lead. If they are open to seeking professional help, ask them how they would like to move forward.
- You could look at your list of professional help options together.
- You could say that you’ll do some research and find a few options that align with what the young person needs/prefers. For instance, do they want to talk to someone virtually, via text, or in-person? Would they prefer a provider who specializes in working with LGBTQ youth or a provider from the Hmong community?
- You could offer to call the provider with the young person, or you could provide the young person with provider’s contact info and they could reach out on their own.
- If you’re feeling unsure about a specific situation with a young person, consult with your team, or the social worker at the young person’s school. You can call one of the County’s Child Crisis Lines and consult with their staff on what to say and what resources they would recommend.
- Remember that there are many reasons why a youth may not seek help, such as cost, stigma, logistics, and awareness. Be prepared to discuss with the youth and their caregiver what barriers may exist for them.
- When you suspect a youth is experiencing a mental health challenge, it is important to seek appropriate professional help early. The sooner help is received, the better the outcome can be for the young person.
- Follow the young person’s lead. If they are open to seeking professional help, ask them how they would like to move forward.
- Document the referral. Consider including the reason for referral, informed consent of the young person, and any correspondence with the referral provider (how and what you document could be part of your referral policies).
- Track the referral. Follow up with the young person to see if they made a connection with the provider or vice versa.
- If the referral isn’t completed, follow up with the young person and help to troubleshoot.
- There are an infinite number of reasons why a referral fell through: the provider’s contact info is out-of-date; the provider dropped the ball or is at capacity; the young person wasn’t ready to reach out, etc.
- Continue to check in with the young person after they have obtained professional help.
- Periodically assess the effectiveness of the referral services. Ask young people about their referral and treatment experience, and ask the professional help providers about their experience receiving the referral.
“Tips on Providing Effective Referrals” uses the National Council on Mental Wellbeing’s Youth Mental Health First Aid ALGEE framework, and was adapted to youth work settings by Rachel Oberg-Hauser, LISW, from the following sources:
- “Establishing and Providing Effective Referrals for Clients: A Toolkit for Family Planning Providers.” Reproductive Health National Training Center.
- “Making Referrals – Self-Paced Learner’s Guide.” Centre for Community Welfare Training.
- “Referring Patients and Family Caregivers to Community-Based Services: A Provider’s Guide.” Next Step in Care.
- Consultation with multiple Twin Cities-based social workers.