Program Overview​
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Child and Adolescent Psychiatry for the Underserved (CAP4Us) is a unique collaboration between individuals with lived experience in the child welfare system and mental and behavioral health professionals united in a commitment to reverse the trend of inadequate access to comprehensive mental health services for youth involved in systems.
Our Expert Group is comprised of young adults who have aged out of the NYC foster care system. Our Advisory Committee are health professionals with direct experiencing working with children and youth involved in the child welfare system, and our Curriculum Committee is experienced in developing policies and training programs for medical professionals. ​
CAP4Us is co-created by Angel Mendoza, Christina Van Osten and Nicole Carta.
Dr. Mendoza is board certified and practicing Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrician and Chief Medical Officer for New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS). Angel has extensive experience in government and nonprofit organizations supporting youth involved in child welfare and juvenile justice, immigrant families, the LGBTQIA+ community, and individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. He presently oversees all health- and mental health-related policy, service delivery, and programmatic activities for ACS. Dr. Mendoza entered the United States under the H1B waiver program to pursue a pediatric residency at a public hospital in Cleveland, OH, a program on which CAP4Us is modeled. He then served in a medically underserved area under the J-1 waiver program, working in a community health center in rural Georgia, providing primary care to predominantly Black and Latino families. He has since been employed continually in settings that served Medicaid-covered, underinsured, and uninsured populations.
Christina Van Osten, MPA, co-creator and Expert Committee leader, is a lived-experience professional who aged out of foster care nine years ago and has since dedicated her career to improving permanency outcomes for youth. As the Founder of Defining You LLC and Director of Family and Youth Engagement at You Gotta Believe, she works directly with young people and families to center youth voice and drive meaningful, lasting connections. She brings a critical lived-experience lens to CAP4Us, helping shape the initiative to build trust and better serve system-impacted youth.
Nicole Carta, MBA, leads Cultivate:Good, a social impact consulting collective, where she consults for various organizations that serve the child welfare population in addition to global development. She has an extensive background working in and for agencies that support underserved populations. She is also the former Director of the ACS Office of Public-Private Partnerships, which explores, develops, and creates programs and initiatives addressing the mental health, educational, and financial needs of children and youth in care, through their transition into adulthood and as professionals in the community at large.
Program Details
CAP4Us is a four-year pilot initiative created to build a sustained pipeline of new child and adolescent psychiatric (CAP) professionals dedicated to serving youth impacted by the child welfare system. The initiative consists of three main levers:
1. Development of a Child Welfare-focused Curriculum
Collaboration with mental and behavioral health leaders in NYC to develop a specific curriculum containing approaches to diagnosis, history-taking, motivational interviewing, medication management, and co-monitoring with case management entities to better support traumatized, systems-involved youth. This will include elective rotations with foster care agencies and exposure to New York City congregate care settings that will offer first-hand experiences with this uniquely vulnerable population.
2. Creation of Post-CAP Fellowship Training Slots
Collaboration with medical institutions, public health settings and hospitals to create two, one-year post-CAP fellowship training slots in child and adolescent psychiatry programs in New York City. Trainees will have part-time employment in training hospitals, public health clinics, or other settings providing mental health care for predominantly Medicaid-covered populations, and engage in training activities focused on topics and issues specific to Child Welfare. In addition to part-time pay, CAP4Us will provide additional salary for post-CAP Fellowship psychiatrists to bring their total pay closer to prevailing wages. This continued support will build a pipeline of psychiatric professionals regularly serving the most vulnerable child and adolescent populations and provide opportunities for aspiring CAPs to receive specialized training.
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3. Student Loan Repayment and Commitment to Serve
The CAP4Us program will provide a financial incentive to post-fellowship CAPs who complete the specialized training upon commitment to serving the child welfare population through employment with public and private agencies. This incentive will help to cover student loan payments and other related expenses incurred during their education. Such a commitment will ensure that the children and families in our child welfare system, who are predominantly underserved and minoritized, receive equitable, accessible, and high-quality psychiatric services.
Timeline
Program & Training Curriculum Design
Sep 2025 - June 2026
Announcement of CAP4Us
July 2026
Orientation Period
April 2027 - June 2027
Training Program Monitoring and Mentorship
July 2027 - June 2028
Trained Fellows Commitment to Serve & Student Loan Repayment
July 2028 - June 2031
Developing Training Materials
Jan 2026 - Jan 2027
Recruitment and Selection Process
Sep 2026 - Feb 2027
CAP4Us Training Program
July 2027 - June 2028
Clinical Placement
Feb 2028 - June 2029
Program Evaluation and Scale statewide and nationally
July 2028 - onwards