This final report, in the form of an executive summary presents the findings of the Families in Action project, a 5-year effort to examine the experiences of parents and other members of families of children with emotional disorders as members of policy-related bodies. The project also addressed the development of strategies to enhance parent involvement in policy-making bodies. The project conducted a literature review, focus group discussions, and life history interviews. After an introductory section, section 2 of the report summarizes results of the focus group life history interviews in terms of barriers to family member participation, strategies for increasing family member participation, training and other methods of providing information, and life histories of eight parents. Section 3 examines five case studies of the experiences of parents and parent organizations in the policy-making process at five demonstration sites. Section 4 presents the results of questionnaire data collected from site participants. Section 5 discusses the implications of the findings for family members and policy-makers interested in enhancing family member participation on policy-making bodies. Major issues are identified, including the need to involve more family members in the policy process, issues of survival as conflicting with parental desires for policy-making involvement, and whether parent involvement actually changes the service system. Eight appendices include copies of the instruments used in the study, survey data, and other related project materials. (DB)