The Woodland Hills-based California Endowment has announced the launch of a four-year, $6.5 million initiative to strengthen the capacity of probation departments, improve access to mental health and health services for adolescents in detention facilities, and ensure continuity of care upon their release.

Through the endowment's new Healthy Returns Initiative, probation departments in Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Ventura, and Humboldt counties each were awarded four-year, $950,000 planning and implementation grants, while Los Angeles County's probation department was awarded a one-year, $250,000 planning grant. Counties were selected according to criteria that include the probation department's interest and readiness to address health and/or behavioral health issues, and the willingness of probation department leadership, juvenile court judges, and boards of supervisors to support the initiative's goals. After an initial planning phase, each county will implement activities that are tailored to the needs of its population, including the use of a standardized mental health screening instrument; health and mental health case planning and access to services while adolescents are in detention; and active connections with culturally appropriate county and community-based mental health organizations to ensure that treatment plans started in detention are followed upon a youth's release.

"As many as 80 percent of adolescents in the juvenile justice system struggle with mental health disorders. Philanthropy can help by providing the system with the necessary support to help strengthen its capacity to properly address these youths' unmet mental health and health needs," said endowment president and CEO Robert K. Ross. "Collaboration between probation departments, mental health, and other allied agencies is key to effective system changes, which will help improve these youths' access to health and mental health services, as well as help prepare them for healthy and productive adulthoods."