This issue of the quarterly newsletter of the Center for Mental Health in Schools is devoted to matters related to advancing the field. Features and regular segments include: (1) Sustaining and Scale-up: It's About Systemic Change; (2) Mental Health in Schools: Where is the Field Going?; (3) Advancing the Field: Everyone Can Play A Role; (4) The…

This directory is intended to provide information on HIV/AIDS interventions funded by the World Bank that include a component for young children. Data were collected from 1986-2001 fiscal year reports from both freestanding HIV/AIDS projects and those projects with HIV/AIDS components. Countries are listed alphabetically and projects are organized…

This study examined the utilization rate of behavioral health services by children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) over a 6-year period and compared this rate to the expected number of children with ASD in TennCare, Tennessee's managed care Medicaid program. Analysis of TennCare patient data found the rate at which children with ASD received…

During a symposium, three presentations described initiatives that exemplify the principles and components of the Ecology of Outcomes. Emphasis is on accountability for achieving measurable outcomes and use of outcome information in program planning and development. Summaries of individual papers are: (1) "The Ecology of Outcomes: System…

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 report reviews work by the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG), which evaluated the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), including whether children are being enrolled inappropriately in SCHIP rather than in Medicaid, and states' progress in reducing the number of uninsured children. This…

This document details the strategic plan of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to address disparities in health and developmental outcomes among Americans, particularly between and among racial and ethnic groups. Following a description of the plan's development, scientific areas of interest, and important themes, the…

To reach academic goals such as reducing the achievement gap and leaving no child behind, schools must include a focus on addressing barriers to student learning to ensure all children have an equal opportunity to succeed at school. Such a focus requires a high-level policy commitment to establishing an "enabling component." Operationalizing an…

To function well, every system has to fully understand and manage its resources. Mapping is a first step toward enhancing essential understanding, and done properly, it is a major intervention in the process of moving forward with enhancing systemic effectiveness. In schools and community agencies, there is redundancy stemming from ill-conceived…

This paper reports on the University of South Carolina School-Based Mental Health Project, a program which provides mental health services within a public school setting in an effort to maximize the preventive and educational effects of mental health services within schools. The project is also developing a model to serve as a foundation for a…

The focus of this training is on understanding ways to design and implement an overall mental health strategy in your program. The authors are not going to talk about specific intervention strategies, such as how to deal with challenging behavior in the classroom, or how to identify and screen children with possible mental health issues. Instead,…

This investigation is a follow-up of the subsequent psychiatric histories of children who did or did not participate in a preventively oriented school mental health program. Early detected vulnerable children were found to have disproportionately high later appearances in a community-wide psychiatric register. Retrospective analyses of the…

Critically examines the efficacy, training, and administration of research in terms of meeting the goal of children's mental health; the emphasis is on rationally analyzing our empirical enterprise as it applies to practical payoff, especially mental health. (Author/JM)

Describes a mental health program that makes use of teacher-taught materials that do not require extensive preparation by the teachers involved. The program attempts to alter personality through the use of techniques that promote education in mental health and experimentation with group and individual behavior. (Author)