The bulk of our referrals are made by agencies prior to any determination of potential RTC or out-of-home placement. The LCT functions as a true prevention initiative in that most of our agency partners now recognize that many families can be served in their communities if they have an opportunity to meet with the CRICT team. Due to this approach, numbers for youth diverted from RTC will always appear low as these cases are not presented to the group for review or approval of a potential RTC placement.
Our county continues to have extremely low overall out of home placement rates. Between the CRICT teams and an effective Alternative Response system, families are receiving interventions and supports early enough to prevent more deep-end use of systems including out of home placements for children.