The Family to Family program provides relief to families with emotionally impaired children through regular out-of-home respite care with host families. The overall goal of the program is to keep families with seriously emotionally impaired children intact, thus avoiding out-of-home placement. The program therefore involves, in addition to…

This evaluation report of the Family to Family Program assesses parental attitudes towards their Family to Family experience and the functioning of their emotionally impaired children. Topics include administration and administrative support; recruitment of consumer families; identification of host families; consumer support services; and consumer…

This evaluation report of the Family to Family Program assesses parental attitudes towards their Family to Family experience and the functioning of their emotionally impaired children. It reviews issues of goal achievement; the impact on the targeted problem; service population demographics; and sustainability. Related topics include…

Competition for mental health funding among advocates for treatment, prevention, and research often produces more tension than productivity. Competition is fueled by dependency on varied streams of funding and lack of coherent connections and coordination among the host of public and private agents involved in addressing child and adolescent…

Summaries of four papers and a discussion presented at a symposium on expanding the research base of systems of care for children's mental health examine school-wide systems of positive behavioral support and provide data on a three-tiered Positive Behavior Intervention and Support (PBIS) program for improving mental health functioning of…

This paper describes a California-based interagency program that combines mental health, educational, and probation services in an effort to reduce juvenile recidivism. The program provides interagency services at three therapeutic high schools and one juvenile facility with the goal of keeping minors at home and thereby reducing recidivism by…

This paper introduces a framework for conceptualizing a system of care for children and youth with severe emotional or behavioral disorders built on a child development perspective. The approach focuses on developmental transitions which all children and youth experience. Such transitions include entry into school, negotiating the challenges…

This study examined demographic, clinical, and criminal histories as they related to whether 244 youth (ages 12-18) referred for mental health services at a juvenile corrections facility were repeat or first-time offenders. The population of 244 patients included 144 first-time offenders and 100 repeat offenders. Results of the study found that…

This paper summarizes the process of instituting a standardized mental health assessment protocol in a community health treatment program serving maltreated youth. The assessment program was intended to: (1) provide descriptive data regarding the populating utilizing the service; (2) examine the efficacy of therapeutic interventions and monitor…

This paper discusses the results of a study that investigated the reliability and validity of the Youth Client Satisfaction Questionnaire (YCSQ). The YCSQ is administered as a telephone interview, which provides a higher response rate than mailed surveys. Participants in the study were 87 clients (ages 11-17) and their parents who had completed…

Supportive relationships, especially those with primary caregivers, are crucial for both the physical survival and the healthy social-emotional development of infants and toddlers. This guide, the first in a series on infant mental health from the Center for Program Excellence, describes how supportive relationships promote the social-emotional…

Two papers summarize a symposium on special education services and interagency systems of care for children and adolescents with severe emotional disturbance (SED) in California. The first paper, "Opening the Floodgates? The Influence of a System of Care on Referrals to Special Education" (Iris Zanglis, Michael J. Furlong, Michelle Wood,…

This paper presents baseline data on students (mean age 10 years) with severe emotional disturbances at four public schools, two in Kentucky and two in Vermont, who will be followed in an evaluation of the application of a coordinated, community-based system of care operating in both states. Data are summarized concerning the service systems…

Describes the elements of an adequate educational setting for emotionally disturbed children. (Author/DR)