Our Story of CYF T.I.P.s

This Tools to Improve Practice (TIPs) website serves as a resource library for the Children, Youth, and Families System of Care (CYF SOC) of the San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH) Behavioral Health Services (BHS), and potentially any provider working with children, youth, and families.  

The vision for TIPs is to provide a compendium of resources that can complement and strengthen the clinical work of our therapists, clinicians, counselors, psychiatrists, case managers, crisis workers, and other behavioral health providers.

Our story started in the Winter of 2018, at a CYF Providers' Meeting. While collectively reflecting on our data stories from outcomes of our children and youth clients, we acknowledged the impact of ongoing trauma, racism, and other cultural and systemic factors on the well-being of our child and youth clients. We conducted a poll, results of which are presented in the word cloud on the left, to collaboratively reflect and recommend best ways to address these adverse experiences of our clients. Aside from ongoing trainings and groups, we highlighted the potential usefulness of an online resources hub, that any provider can access, for tools that can support and reinforce their practice. We started with internal wiki pages and shared folders of resources, disseminated through time, but later realized how cumbersome it can be to navigate these folders. 

The need for a user-friendly website became more apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, especially as our providers shifted their practice to telebehavioral health. Thus, I put together this website as a start. It's a work in progress, and just like the tip of a pencil, we'll continue 'sharpening' this tool so it gets better through time.

Ritchie Rubio, PhD

CYF Director of Practice Improvement and Analytics