This descriptive case study reports on the positive impact of a consultative review methodology used to conduct quality assurance reviews as part of the Residential Treatment Center Evaluation Project. The study details improvement in the quality of services provided to youth in unmonitored residential treatment facilities. Improvements were…

The lack of culturally appropriate health and mental health care has contributed to the large number of African American youth and families involved in the child welfare system. This article reviews the consequences of the insufficient access to culturally sensitive, evidence-supported interventions for African American foster youth. The authors…

Children and families built by adoption or relative caregiving have specialized needs. This paper proposes a rubric for the central elements of permanency-focused mental health services in child welfare practice. Kinship Center provides an innovative mental health service delivery system, weaving foster and adoptive placement programs, adoption…

Child welfare directors in 19 states and juvenile justice officials in 30 counties estimated that in fiscal year 2001 parents placed over 12,700 children into the child welfare or juvenile justice systems so that these children could receive mental health services. Neither the child welfare nor the juvenile justice system was designed to serve…

This article presents a comprehensive strategy framework for integrating mental health, child welfare, education, substance abuse, and juvenile justice system services. It proposes an infrastructure of information exchange, cross-agency client referrals, a networking protocol, interagency councils, and service integration models. This…

During the past three decades, there has been an increase in knowledge about early childhood development. Early experiences can function as either risk factors or protective factors for a child's future health and development. This has led to concern about how current health systems contribute to the quality of the earliest experiences of life.…

Argues that educational partnerships need to reflect not only collaboration among service institutions and providers, but also an actual integration of basic services. Suggests that a collaborative, integrated, service-delivery system should be the primary basis for allocating new resources to school and community efforts to enhance the safety and…

San Antonio's Child Mental Health Program (CMHP) became ineligible for direct funding following enactment of Public Law 94-63, but was able to propose a viable plan for program survival. The CMHP, established by the Mexican American Unity Council (MAUC) in 1972, provides comprehensive child mental health services within a community setting and…

Analyzes why the current complex of social institutions and systems does not effectively serve poor children, highlighting the lack of early or preventative help for families and inappropriate organizational structure. Offers a series of five principles for a new foundation based on prevention, comprehensiveness, continuity, and accountability.…

This abstract bibliography cites recent ERIC documents and journal articles focusing on public policy as it affects the lives of children. Entries include resumes from "Resources in Education", "RIE", April 1970 through October 1976 and citations from "Current Index to Journals in Education", "CIJE", January…

This document is part of a series of monographs on community-based services for children and adolescents who are severely emotionally disturbed. The series is the product of a national study of community-based service approaches which identified over 200 programs serving emotionally disturbed children and included visits to several programs…

This article reviews the progress made in meeting United States' existing mental health goals for adolescents, and identifies issues that will have to be considered in setting new goals. The article examines the substantial need for child mental health services, particularly among young, socioeconomically disadvantaged youth. The unmet need for…

This conference proceedings document includes 43 papers on the provision of mental health services to children. Eleven papers focus on evaluation of systems of care, addressing: preliminary findings from several program evaluation studies, systems of care in California, several Robert Wood Johnson projects, a parents' satisfaction survey in…

This opening chapter provides an overview of the book, "Healthy Children 2010: Establishing Preventive Services." The article describes the purpose of the work, which is to provide strategies to establish and successfully implement effective prevention services in key socializing settings that powerfully affect the growth an development…

The purpose of this report is to provide the Center for Excellence (CfE) in Early Childhood Development with a set of recommendations regarding how to measure school readiness in Ventura County. This report defines school readiness according to the National Education Goals Panel (NEGP) which identified the following three important components of…