ChAMPS

We are an emergency service that works in close partnership with hospitals and police to provide help for children living in D.C. facing a behavioral or mental health crisis. We come to your home or your child’s school the same day.

This service is provided at no cost to District residents and D.C. children in foster placement in Maryland. We are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week for children ages six to 17. We also serve children ages 18 to 21 if they are in the care and custody of DC Child and Family Services Agency.

The service is designed to help children manage extreme emotional behavior and assist families so that the behavior does not result in a child leaving the home. We come to you — wherever you need immediate help — to assess the situation and determine the best course of action. For the past 15 years, Catholic Charities has provided 10,821 crisis interventions. Children as young as 6 years old are suffering from suicidal ideation. Youth and young adults with challenges and stresses at home can display signs of aggression, potential for self-harm, or homicidal ideation.*

Our team will provide in-home assistance when appropriate or arrange temporary placement in a respite home or other emergency setting as needed. The team also will assess whether a child’s behavior poses a danger, requiring possible psychiatric inpatient hospitalization.

If your child is in a crisis, please call the crisis hotline at 202-481-1440.

*Catholic Charities DC has been managing the Children and Adolescent Mobile Psychiatric Services (ChAMPS) contract with the DC Department of Behavioral Health (DBH) since 2010. This contract includes expectations for ongoing program evaluation and data collection for analysis by Catholic Charities and DBH to detect positive and negative trends, reinforce best practices, and address barriers to service delivery. The statistics referenced above are part of ongoing required data collection for this contract.