Polaris-Youth or Polaris-CW (Child Welfare): Which one is right for you?


Polaris-Youth Polaris-CW
Designed primarily for youth receiving mental health services Designed for all youth system of care agencies: child welfare, juvenile justice, and mental health
Designed for private and public agency use Designed for private and public agency use
Assesses parental perception of youth’s mental health status Incorporates assessment of parental mental health as well as youth
Contains rating areas from CANS-MH (Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths-Mental Health) Contains rating areas from Comprehensive CANS
Assesses youth strengths in relation to improvement in mental health symptomology Assesses youth strengths—especially in relationship to recovery from abuse/neglect
Assumes more intact family system—or situations where the child is the primary focus; most youth at home or receiving in-home services; may be considered for or enrolled in wraparound Assumes weaker family systems—many youth may be in out of home placement such as foster care or residential placement or high intensive wraparound programs
Does not assess trauma or its effects Assesses youth and family trauma and its effects


This chart is designed to provide some considerations you may want to think about before deciding on what Polaris system to use with your youth program.The most complex decisions are related to wraparound programs as they differ significantly in requirements and configurations.This is true whether the youth enters initially via child welfare, mental health or juvenile justice.

We have constructed a series of questions to consider especially with this level of care. Polaris staff are available to discuss your program’s characteristics and offer its suggestion as to what might work best. You can also pilot multiple systems.

1) Are you concerned about assessing parental mental health? (Favors Polaris-CW)

2) Is the child living at home? (Favors Polaris-Youth)

3) Does your program have a trauma-informed orientation for child or family violence? (Favors Polaris-CW)

4) Is the family system intact sufficiently that the family can provide modeling responses to the youth (Favors Polaris-Youth)

Remember we are just a phone call or an e-mail away. We can be reached at moreinfo@polarishealth.com or at 215.359.3901