The important mental health problems of children have become the focus of increasing public awareness in the past few years. Adolescent suicide, the physical, emotional, and sexual abuse of children, alcohol and drug abuse by young people, as well as psychiatric hospitalization of children and adolescents have fueled a growing debate on mental illness and mental health services for our young children.This book was prepared by the Office of Technology Assessment at the request of Senators Mark Hatfield and Daniel Inouye. It acknowledges that there are no simple solutions to the problems we face or easy answers to questions concerning the best system of mental health service delivery. Yet Children’s Mental Health makes it abundantly clear that there is a need for a mental health system response to these issues and that this response must be coordinated with other existing service systems.

This book should be of value to concerned parents and community leaders, health system planners, and health care practitioners involved with both the needs of children and mental illness.