The need for mental health services coordination is discussed in this report. It is noted that, without coordination, government units and service providers can operate independently and in competition with one another. The move to deinstitutionalization is discussed, including the lack of service coordination resulting from this move and the…

Each issue in the year 2000 edition of the Australian Transcultural Mental Health Network (ATMHN) newsletter represents a theme crucial to mental health practitioners. The articles in Winter 2000 are the result of the national Suicide Prevention in Immigrant Populations Conference and include detailed analyses on suicide trends in diverse cultural…

Each issue in the 2001 edition of the Australian Transcultural Mental Health Network (ATMHN) newsletter represents a theme critical to mental health practitioners. The Spring/Summer 2001 issue features articles on building communities of support for refugees, providing support to these families in cultural transitions, and studying depression…

This newsletter addresses managing the spread of communicable diseases in childhood settings as well as educational program concerns for children who are HIV infected. Noting that communicable diseases are a source of concern no matter how minor they might appear, the newsletter suggests that it is important for individuals who work with the…

The mental health policies of the past 20 years and the evidence of unserved populations suffering from serious mental illness constitute a public health crisis. Currently there are at least 3,000,000 people in the United States suffering from mental disorders. A fully developed continuum of care is needed to respond effectively to the diverse…

This publication includes five articles on health care and health promotion within impoverished communities. "The Health of Families and Communities" (Douglas W. Nelson) introduces the issue, discussing the work of the Annie E. Casey Foundation in communities. "Inconspicuous Consumption: Treating Latent TB Infection in Seattle"…

This essay is based on a series of roundtables convened through the Knight Collaborative National Medical Education Roundtable. It reports that the challenges and transformations experienced in recent years by community-based medical schools and clinical campuses offer a lens to the whole higher education enterprise, and asks the fundamental…

The theme of this serial issue is helping individuals involved in community health programs at the local level to devise and apply a protocol for the evaluation of a community health program. In the opening sections of the issue evaluation is defined, the difference between a direct quantifying measure and an indicator is clarified, obstacles to…

Federal block grants and consolidated programs related to poverty reduction may compel states to streamline administrative structures and approaches that have deterred collaboration in the past. This report considers the block grant environment in making key policy recommendations for reducing poverty in rural areas, formulated during a Pathways…

For certain groups of the mentally ill, most notably individuals with serious mental disabilities, the community-based mental health system can be more of a "non-system." Unforeseen problems have plagued both the dream of deinstitutionalization and the effectiveness of community mental health centers during the last 20 years. Uncoordinated…

Innovations in the training of community health personnel that emphasize the importance of the development of health personnel able and willing to serve the community by providing health care, promoting health, preventing disease, and caring for those in need are examined. The need for effective and efficient training programs relevant to present…

Historically, the financial responsibility for caring for those with mental illness has shifted back and forth from the local community, to the state, to the federal government. Today states provide the vast majority of the funds to the state mental health agencies and oversee local governments and most private resources for mental health funding.…

Articles in seven newsletters of the Intercultural Development Research Association's Mental Health Research Project emphasize community mental health, human, and child welfare services to Mexican Americans, particularly in Texas. Topics include social policy formation in child welfare services, utilization of community mental health clinics…

This newsletter theme issue focuses on providing services to infants with special needs in rural areas. In "Old Threads, New Patterns: Reaching Out to Rural Families," Deborah Harris-Usner discusses bringing infant mental health care and parent-infant psychotherapy to rural New Mexico. In "The People of Kids Place: Creating and Maintaining…