Background: Community health efforts often include outreach activities designed to increase awareness and ensure uptake of services or programs. Yet, few comprehensive outreach evaluations exist, particularly those designed to improve access to and use of mental health services. Purpose: This article summarizes the use of two established…

Some practical suggestions for a business-like approach to community mental health, particularly transitional residences. (Editor)

The community mental health movement started with the purpose of providing services dealing with problems and issues specific to individual communities. As the movement grew, it took on the responsibility of delivering services to the "underserved" populations of this country, including children, the elderly, minority groups, and rural-area…

There is evidence that informal caregiving systems, called natural helping networks, already carry much of the service load of community mental health services, and need to be strengthened to provide even more. Social network analysis is a useful tool for understanding how these informal mechanisms operate, as well as the way in which some…

This paper describes a project which is attempting to strengthen existing mental health programs and develop new forms of support for rural children, since current programs are limited by a scarcity of funds, trained personnel, and supportive services. The setting of the project is a three-county area in Southwestern Pennsylvania which has been…

This paper describes an approach utilized by Margaret Dumas Mental Health Center to produce an effective preventive mental health program with the school incorporating the concept of clear communication and consultation between the school and mental health personnel. (Author)

Mental health resources on most college campuses are taxed to their limits. A program to develop the faculty's "counseling skills" is discussed. (Author)

The process of describing existing services for American Indian and Alaska Native children with serious emotional disturbance by the Circles of Care strategic planning initiative is overviewed. We explain why service system description is important and how it helped define the role of evaluation within the initiative. Primary goals and…

This is a description of a mental health project in which the goal of assisting the general public in managing stability-threatening situations is pursued by starting outside the community mental health center, in a rural high school. Included are: (1) a description of students; (2) a statement of goals that directed the teaching effort; (3) the…

A community-based program was designed to serve as an alternative to traditional short-term hospital treatment and after-care services for the psychiatrically disabled client. Comparisons revealed significant differences in favor of this approach. A rehabilitation counselor worked half-time and was an invaluable member. (Author)

In 1969, the Joint Commission on the Mental Health of Children made several recommendations based on the conclusions in their report entitled "Crisis in Child Mental Health: Challenge for the 1970's." These recommendations included formation of a child advocacy system at every level of society; the development of supportive, preventive,…

This report describes some of the ethical and practical problems experienced by a group of mental health consultants attempting to initiate a primary prevention mental health program in a three-county area of North Carolina. Project Early Aid was designed to implement a program model that would upgrade both the interpersonal and physical…

This document explains what community consultation and education is, what it does, and how it works; its concern with the prevention of mental illness and the promotion of mental health is examined. More specifically, the document is designed to cast a spotlight upon the preventative and educative services which community mental health centers are…

Summarizes conference proceedings and provides an overview of the nature and key issues of cut-back management in community mental health services. Discusses leadership and management, leadership strategies and values, the management of organizational resource reduction applied to human services, the process of reorganization, and…