Children Services

Psychiatric Hospital is a hospital that is primarily engaged in providing psychiatric services for the diagnosis, treatment and care of persons with mental illness. A psychiatric hospital must be licensed as a psychiatric hospital by the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).

Crisis Residential Services are individualized therapeutic interventions provided to a member during a psychiatric emergency to address mental health and/or co-occurring mental health and substance abuse conditions for a time-limited post-crisis period, in order to stabilize the member’s condition.

Outpatient Services are professional assessment, counseling and therapeutic medically necessary services provided to members, to improve functioning, address symptoms, relieve excess stress and promote positive orientation and growth that facilitate increased integrated and independent levels of functioning. Services may be provided in individual, family, and/or group format.

Psychological Services are services provided to a member in agreement with a plan of care by an individual in private practice who meets the licensure requirement for the diagnosis and treatment of mental, psychoneurotic, or personality disorders.

Family Psycho Educational Treatment is a service provided to members in multi-family groups and single-family sessions. Clinical components include engagement sessions, psycho educational workshops and ongoing supportive sessions centered on solving problems that interfere with treatment and rehabilitation.

Children’s Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) service is a 24 hour, 7 days a week intensive service intended to facilitate discharge from inpatient psychiatric hospitalization or to avoid impending admission to a psychiatric hospital. It may also be used to facilitate discharge from a psychiatric residential facility, or prevent the need for admission to a crisis stabilization unit.

• Child ACT Submission Guideline 

Medication Management Services are services that are directly related to the prescription, dispensing and/or monitoring of medications intended for the treatment and management of mental illness.

Behavioral Health Day Treatment Services are structured therapeutic services designed to improve a member’s functioning in daily living and community living. Programs may include a mixture of individual, group, and activities therapy, and also include therapeutic treatment oriented toward developing a child’s emotional and physical capability in area of interpersonal functioning. This may include behavioral strategies and interventions. Services will be provided as prescribed in the Individualized Treatment Plan (ITP).

• Section 65 Day Treatment Clinical Guidelines

Section 28 Provider Training

• Section 28 The Referral Process
• Section 28 The Referral Workflow
• How to Complete the Release of Information Form
• Referral Management FAQ's

Section 28 Materials and Forms

• Section 28 Referral
• Authorization to Release Information Form
• Section 28 Request for Extension
• Section 28 Comprehensive Assessment: Guide to Conversation (narrative summary)
• Section 28 Community Based Guidelines
• 28 RCS Eligibility and Referral Submission Guidelines
• Kepro Referral Management Process PowerPoint
• OCFS and Acentra Health Referral Management Workflow Webinar Call (Recorded on 2/1/17)
• MaineCare Funded Service Grid

For updated Office of Child and Family Service Forms, please visit click here

Treatment Services for Children with Cognitive Impairments and Functional Limitations are medically necessary treatment services for members under the age of 21. Treatment services are designed to retain or improve functional abilities which have been negatively impacted by the effects of cognitive or functional impairment and are focused on behavior modification and management, social development, and acquisition and retention of developmentally appropriate skills. Services include problem solving activities in order to help the member develop and maintain skills and abilities necessary to manage his or her behavioral health treatment needs, learning the social skills and behaviors necessary to live with and interact with other community members and independently, and to build or maintain satisfactory relationships with peers or adults, learning the skills that will improve a member’s self-awareness, environmental awareness, social appropriateness and support social integration, and learning awareness of and appropriate use of community services and resources.

Specialized Services for Children with Cognitive Impairments and Functional Limitations are medically necessary, evidence based treatment services for members under the age of 21, that utilize behavioral interventions designed to improve socially significant behaviors and developmentally appropriate skills to a measurable degree. Services include problem solving activities in order to help the member develop and maintain skills and abilities necessary to manage his or her behavioral health treatment needs, learning the social skills and behaviors necessary to live with and interact with other community members and independently, and to build or maintain satisfactory relationships with peers or adults, learning the skills that will improve a member’s self-awareness, environmental awareness, social appropriateness and support social integration, and learning awareness of and appropriate use of community services and resources.

Psychiatric Hospital is a hospital that is primarily engaged in providing psychiatric services for the diagnosis, treatment and care of persons with mental illness. A psychiatric hospital must be licensed as a psychiatric hospital by the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).

Covered services include those services ordinarily provided in a psychiatric hospital for the 24-hour care and treatment of an inpatient under the supervision of a psychiatrist and in accordance with the member's plan of care.

The provider shall provide an intensive and structured service of alcohol and drug assessment, diagnosis, including co-occurring mental health and substance abuse diagnoses, and treatment services in a non-residential setting aimed at members who meet ASAM placement criteria level II.1 or level II.5. IOP may include individual, group, or family counseling as part of a comprehensive treatment plan. The provider will make provisions for the utilization of community resources to supply client services when the program is unable to deliver them. Each program shall have a written agreement with, or, shall employ, a physician and other professional personnel to assure appropriate supervision and medical review and approval of services provided.

HCT are for members in need of mental health treatment based in the home and community who need a higher intensity of service than outpatient, but a lower intensity than Children’s ACT.

• Section 65 The Referral Process
• Section 65 The Referral Workflow
• How to Complete the Authorization to Release Information Form
• Referral Management FAQ's

• Section 65 Home and Community-Based Treatment (HCT) Referral
• Authorization to Release Information Form
• OCFS and Acentra Health Referral Management Workflow for Section 28 RCS and Section 65 HCT
• OCFS and Acentra Health Referral Management Workflow Webinar Call (Recorded on 2/1/17)
• Section 65 Home and Community-Based Treatment (HCT) Submission Guidelines
• Section 65 OP Submission Guidelines
• MaineCare Funded Service Grid
• Parent Acknowledgement Form
• HCT Information Sheet

A children's residential care facility is any private or public agency or facility that is maintained and operated for the provision of treatment and care for one or more children on a regular basis. Children's RCF services are designed to provide comprehensive, trauma-informed, child-centered, and family-focused behavioral health treatment to children and adolescents.

CRCF services are provided in a supervised therapeutic milieu in which skills and principles learned in clinical treatment may be reinforced and practiced with the goal of safely transitioning the member back into the community within a family setting. RCF services are short-term and intensive in nature using a trauma-informed and culturally responsive treatment model, while also actively engaging the member's family or caregiver in treatment. Services must be provided in the least restrictive setting, with the goal of placement as close to the child's home as possible which required families and/or caregivers to remain actively involved in the child's treatment. CRCF are also subject to rules in the MBM, Chapter III, Section 97, and Appendix D.

• CRCF Process
• How to Complete the Release of Information Form
• Children's Residential Care Facility (CRCF) Services Provider Webinar
• Aftercare Support Services Webinar

• Section 97 CRCF Application
• Section 97 CRCF Application Instructions
• Section 97 Provider Reference Guide
• CRCF Information Sheet
• Acknowledgement Form
• Aftercare Support Services Information Sheet
• Aftercare Support Services FAQs
• Section 97 Temporary High Intensity Service Application
• State of Maine Children's Residential Care Facility List (updated 4/1/2026)
  • This document can also be found on the CBHS website: Children's Behavioral Health & Residential Treatment | Department of Health and Human Services
• MaineCare Funded Service Grid

To obtain a Release of Information form, please follow the below link to access the DHHS Authorization to Release Information Form.

• Authorization to Release Information Form
• Authorization to Release Information Form Example