Although 14% to 26% of children under the age of 18 suffer from some type of behavioral, emotional, or developmental problem, only about one quarter of these children actually receive any care. How can we reach more of these children (and their families) and give them more effective mental health care? Aimed at finding an answer to this question, Children’s Mental Health Services explores the major developments in the policy, services, and evaluations arenas that have implications for the development and refinement of service systems for children and adolescents with mental health needs. The book begins with an overview of state-level policies as well as the research development in children’s mental health services. Next, the authors thoughtfully examine the components of the multiagency system–from the juvenile justice system to primary care and school-based mental health services–to see what contributions each can make in serving children with mental health needs and their families. This valuable resource also evaluates three recent examples of children’s mental health service systems. Children’s Mental Health Services is an important volume for students in evaluation, family studies, development psychology, public policy and social work. Researchers, evaluators, and practitioners in the teen or child mental health area will also find this book a welcome synthesis of the issues and research in this field.
I would like to congratulate the editors on the publication of this volume and on the initiation of the Sage Children’s Mental Health Services series. I applaud their work in bringing together so many leaders in children’s mental health to produce a very thoughtful and strategic analyses of progress that has been made and issues that remain to be addressed. I anticipate that this volume and entire series will make an important contribution to an understanding of where we have come from in developing effective service systems, where we still need to go to better support children and families, who our partners in this effort should be, and perhaps, most important strategically, how we should strive to move ahead.
–from the Foreword by Robert M. Friedman, University of South Florida