Community Action Treatment (CAT)

The CAT Team is a team of mental health professionals who work with families to provide treatment that promotes family wellness, stability, and participation with social services agencies. CAT provides 24-hour on-call family support. Therapeutic services focus on parenting skills, behavior modification, and social skills development. Services are community-based, with most occurring in the home and school.

Who is Eligible?

Residents of Okaloosa Area, ages 11-21, are eligible for CAT Team services. To be eligible, you must have had at least one of the following:

• Continuous treatments without success
• Recent history of psychiatric hospitalizations
• At risk of being placed in the Department of Juvenile Justice residential commitment program
• Returning from a residential treatment facility to home
• In foster care but working toward reunification or adoption
• At risk of being placed in Department of Juvenile Justice residential commitment program
• Aging out of children’s mental health services and transitioning into the adult system with high treatment needs

Benefits

The CAT Team provides a variety of benefits, including:

• Mental Health/Psychiatric Care
• Medications
• Mentoring
• Case Management Services
• Co-occurring Mental Health and Substance Abuse Treatment
• Individual and Family Therapy
• Advocacy
• Community Resource Coordination

The Goals of the CAT Team

The CAT Team’s goals are to:

• Strengthen the family system, resulting in youth living at home and succeeding in their community.
• Improve school-related outcomes such as attendance, grades, and graduation rates.
• Decrease substance use abuse.
• Decrease out-of-home placements.
• Transition into age-appropriate services.
• Promote family wellness.
• Decrease psychiatric hospitalizations.