Get ready for the Launch of the Alameda County Child Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) for Ages Birth to 24

The new CANS (Birth to 24) will be tentatively launching in the summer of 2020. This will be the third edition of the Alameda County CANS and it will integrate the Early Childhood (Birth to 5), Child and Youth (6-17) and the Transitional Age Youth (18-24) versions into one document.

Our current versions of CANS do not allow for continuity of questions or long-term CANS data analysis and did not include all of the state mandated questions.

The new CANS (Birth to 24) will have 10 Domains and within each domain, there will be sub-sections by age group, as some questions only pertain to specific age groups:

1. Life Functioning Domain (Ages 0-5) (Ages 6-24)
2. Behavioral/Emotional Needs Domain (Ages 0-5) (Ages 6-24)
3. Individual Strengths Domain (Ages 0-5) (Ages 6-24)
4. Risk Behaviors and Factors (Ages 0-5) (Ages 6-24)
5. Cultural Factors (Ages 0-24)
6. Developmental Factors/Milestones (Ages 6-24)
7. Dyadic Considerations Domain (Ages 0-5)
8. Traumatic/Adverse Childhood Experiences (Ages 0-24)
   
9. Traumatic Stress Symptoms (Ages 6-24)
   
10. Transition Age Youth Domain (Ages 18-24)

There will be 7 modules. Modules are more specific questions that will need to be answered based on a CANS response of a 1, 2, or 3 on certain questions. There are 7 questions that will trigger a module. The modules are:

1. Daycare/Preschool Module (Ages 0-5)
2. Developmental Needs Module (Ages 0-24)
3. School Module (Ages 6-24)
4. Substance Use Disorder Module (Ages 6-24)
5. Suicide Risk Module (Ages 6-24)
6. Dangerousness/Violence Module (Ages 6-24)
7. Vocational/Career Module (Ages 18-24)

Hopefully, further details can be shared with all agencies in May 2020 including the CANS (Birth to 24) Manual and Scoresheet, which are being tested and finalized now.
 
  Facts about the transition to CANS (Birth to 24):

• All data from past assessments will be converted over to the new CANS (Birth to 24). There are some exceptions where the questions have been deleted on the new version.
• Agencies who directly enter CANS data into Objective Arts will see very few changes.
• Those who were completing ANSA-T will now use CANS (Birth to 24).
• Those who were completing the Early Childhood CANS will now use CANS (Birth to 24).
• The age specific versions of CANS and ANSA-T will continue to function for several months while the new Birth to 24 version is functional. The overlap will be 3-4 months. At some point in the fall 2020, the old versions will no longer be functional.
• Spanish and other threshold language versions of CANS (Birth to 24) will not be available this summer at the launch but they are currently in the process of being created by the Praed Foundation.
• Agencies who have CANS as part of their electronic health record will be receiving Comma-separated values (CSV) conversion information from Alameda County Behavioral Health Information Systems in the near future.
• There will be a couple of Information Training calls with the CANS Coordinator and Objective Arts staff for providers who need more support. Information on dates/times/dial-in numbers will provided once determined. Information will be sent through email to every agency.
• ANSA 25+ will not be affected by the CANS (Birth to 24). They will continue to use the ANSA 25+.

 
Please contact Christine Mukai if you have any questions related to CANS (Birth to 24) at:  Christine.Mukai@acgov.org  or 510-567-8238.

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