Step 1: Make a Commitment and Provide Leadership

The first step toward developing a mental health strategic plan is to make an informed commitment to the planning process. What does this mean? First, understand that a strategic plan is not something that you, as the administrator, develop by yourself. To be effective, you will need to implement a collaborative, participatory planning process. Collaborative management means that you share some of the decision-making power with staff and families. The benefit of this in strategic planning is that there will be a broader commitment to the goals and activities that emerge, which will ultimately help make the plan more successful.

Strategic planning takes time and effort. Schedule a series of no more than four two-hour meetings to work on the initial strategic plan. To help you get organized, Steps 3 through 6 in this chapter represents one strategic planning meeting. This can help the group focus and move toward the concrete goal of developing a written plan in a timely way. Ideally, these meetings will be no more than a month apart, to prevent the group from losing focus and momentum. As the leader, you know how to best do this in your program. In your leadership role, you can demonstrate the importance of dedicating time to the planning process by attending these meetings yourself and by helping to ensure staff release time and family support so that the team can fully participate.

Last Updated: August 6, 2025