This study examined the potential utility of adding items that assessed youths' emotional and behavioral disorders to a commonly used surveillance survey. The goal was to evaluate whether the added items could enhance understanding of youths' involvement in high-risk behaviors. A sample of 3,331 adolescents in Grades 8, 10, and 12 from four…

Objective: To investigate associations between different indices of family socioeconomic position (SEP) and the use of specialty mental health services (SMHS) and whether the associations exist after adjusting for severity of mental problems. Method: Using data from a large longitudinal study of adolescents (N = 2,149; mean age = 13.6 years [SD =…

This paper summarizes the development of the Adolescent Treatment Outcome Module (ATOM) to monitor the outcomes of mental health treatment of adolescents with emotional or behavioral problems. The module is intended to: provide reliable and valid information about outcomes of mental health care; be applicable across severity levels, clinical…

This special issue focuses on several methodological issues in the evaluation of the largest mental health and substance abuse project for children and adolescents conducted at a single site, the U.S. Army's Fort Bragg Child and Adolescent Mental Health Demonstration program. The introduction and seven articles describe this program and the…

The satisfaction of 469 parents or guardians and 387 of their children who received mental health services at 22 community agencies in Illinois was assessed with standardized measures and procedures. Youths' satisfaction was less than that of their parents. Results are used to formulate a prediction model. (SLD)

The evaluation plan for New York State's Children and Youth Intensive Case Management (CYICM) Program is described, which was introduced in July 1988. The CYICM Program is a statewide intervention focusing on keeping children with serious emotional disturbances in the least restrictive environment appropriate to their needs. It is a…

This study investigated the effectiveness of the Child and Adolescent Functional Assessment Scale (CAFAS) for assessing the functioning of youth with mental disorders. The CAFAS is a multidimensional tool used to record the extent to which a youth's mental health disorder is disruptive of functioning in each of five psycho-social areas: role…

Cluster analysis was conducted to examine clinical characteristics of 1,961 boys and 1,320 girls (ages 10-19) with serious emotional disturbances entering systems of care funded by the Center for Mental Health Services. Combining functional and behavioral characteristics of participants indicate that symptom measures alone could not adequately…

Background: This study describes the development of the Brief Child and Family Phone Interview (BCFPI)--a computer-assisted telephone interview which adapts the revised Ontario Child Health Study's (OCHS-R) parent, teacher, and youth self-report scales for administration as intake screening and treatment outcome measures in children's mental…

The Family Assessment Planning Team Observation Form was used to assess the family friendliness of the admissions treatment team process at an inpatient child and adolescent psychiatric hospital. The overall rating across 35 case presentations was moderately family friendly and showed marginally higher family friendliness than comparable services…

Background: This study examines the use of the Brief Child and Family Phone Interview (BCFPI) to screen for childhood psychiatric disorder based on Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children Version IV (DISC-IV) classifications of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), conduct disorder (CD),…

This paper critiques current models for evaluation of mental health services provided to children and adolescents with emotional disturbances and offers an alternative model. The most popular model, Donabedian's tripartite model, is described. This model separately evaluates three domains: (1) structure (characteristics of the care providers,…

This conference paper discusses the results of a study that investigated the validity of the Family-Centered Behavior Scale (FCBS) and its companion tool, the FCBS-Importance. On the FCBS, parents of children with special needs rate how often a professional with whom they work performs certain family-centered behaviors. On the FCBS-Importance,…

This paper reports on efforts underway in New York State to develop the Individualized Needs for Services Assessment (INSA). The INSA is a set of standardized procedures and data definitions to guide assessment of service needs for children with serious emotional disturbances (SED). The INSA procedure for children with SED is designed to be…

This paper summarizes the process of instituting a standardized mental health assessment protocol in a community health treatment program serving maltreated youth. The assessment program was intended to: (1) provide descriptive data regarding the populating utilizing the service; (2) examine the efficacy of therapeutic interventions and monitor…