Online Resource Centers
National Mental Health Information Center/Center for Mental Health Services (http://www.mentalhealth.org/) offers resources on child and adolescent mental health including publications, a Mental Health Dictionary, and information on Center for Mental Health Services programs. The National Mental Health Information Center/Center for Mental Health Services is funded by SAMHSA.
UCLA School Mental Health Project National Center for Mental Health in Schools (http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/) offers a broad range of materials and tools on integrating mental health practices into schools, including publications, continuing education modules, technical assistance, and training tutorials and other resources for those responsible for continuing education for teachers and other service providers.
University of Maryland Center for School Mental Health Assistance (CSMHA).
(http://csmha.umaryland.edu/) offers services and resources including resource packets on topics including crisis intervention, funding, cultural competence, and program development and summaries of its Critical Issues Meetings on school-based mental health topics including quality assurance, evaluation, family involvement, funding, and legal and ethical issues.
Center for Effective Collaboration and Practice (http://www.air.org/cecp) offers resources for agencies working with children and youth with emotional and behavioral problems. The center provides resources and publications on issues including functional behavioral assessment, promising prevention strategies, prevention and early intervention, and wraparound planning.
National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice (http://www.ncmhjj.com) promotes awareness of the mental health needs of youth in the juvenile justice system and assists the field in developing improved policies and programs based on the best available research and practice. The Center’s offerings include annotated bibliographies, research and program briefs, and research monographs as well as on-line training events.
NASMHPD National Technical Assistance Center (http://www.nasmhpd.org/ntac.cfm)
delivers customized, on-site technical assistance to State Mental Health Agencies, state mental health planning and advisory councils, consumers, families, and other organizations on a variety of issues including co-occurring disorders, disaster mental health planning and response, and trauma topics such as seclusion and restraint reduction and eventual elimination. It sponsors national conferences, training events, and meetings and offers a wide range of publications designed to assist state mental health agencies and other stakeholders in applying the knowledge gained through research, evaluation, and practice to mental health service settings.
National Mental Health and Education Center (http://www.naspcenter.org/index2.html) offers resources for teachers, principals, parents, school psychologists, and policymakers on a wide range of mental health issues including safe schools, model programs, discipline, attention deficit disorders, and social skills. Many of these resources are available in Spanish as well as English. These include the Success In School/Skills for Life Online Resource Kit, which helps schools provide parents basic information about their children’s academic, emotional, and social development. The National Mental Health and Education Center is a project of the National Association of School Psychologists.
Reports of the Surgeon General
Report of the Surgeon General's Conference on Children's Mental Health: A National Action Agenda (http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/topics/cmh/childreport.htm)
Rockville, MD: U.S. Public Health Service, 2000.
This publication summarizes the proceedings and recommendations of the Surgeon General’s Conference on Children’s Mental Health, which was held in September 2000 to discuss issues of prevention, identification, recognition, and referral of children with mental health needs to appropriate, evidence-based treatments or services.
Plenary sessions explored the following issues:
- Identifying, recognizing, and referring children with mental health needs in key services systems;
- Health services disparities: increasing access to services through family engagement and reducing disparities in access; and
- State of the evidence in treatments, services, systems of care and financing: the gap between what we know and what we do.
Consensus panels were held to:
- Identify the barriers to appropriate identification and recognition of children with mental health needs and the factors that impede access to appropriate treatments or services;
- Identify major opportunities for promoting child and adolescent mental health and for preventing risks and antecedents associated with mental illness;
- Identify the major policies that offer opportunity for strengthening recognition and improving access to care;
- Identify professional training needs in child and adolescent mental health;
- Identify the major barriers to implementing evidence-based treatments and services; and
- Develop recommendations for bridging the gaps among research, practice, and policy.
Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General. Chapter 3, Children and
Mental Health (http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/mentalhealth/home.html)
Rockville, MD: U.S. Public Health Service, 1999.
Children and Mental Health, Chapter 3. of this report, provides an overview of normal development, risk factors and prevention, mental disorders in children, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, depression and suicide in children and adolescents, other mental disorder, services interventions and delivery.
Mental Health: Culture, Race, Ethnicity: A Supplement to Mental Health: A
Report of the Surgeon General (http://www.mentalhealth.org/cre/default.asp)
Rockville, MD: U.S. Public Health Service, 1999.
This supplement to the Surgeon General’s Report on Mental Health highlights the role that culture and society play in mental health, mental illness, and the types of mental health services people seek. Accompanying resources include fact sheets, a guide to culturally specific mental health resources, and an annotated bibliography.
Selected Publications Available Online
Current Status of Mental Health in Schools: A Policy and Practice Analysis. (http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/currentstatusmh.htm). Los Angeles: Center for Mental Health in Schools, 2006.
This report highlights the history of and outlines the current status of mental health in schools, explores emerging trends, and discusses policy implications. The report was produced with support from the Health Resources and Services Administration, Maternal and Child Health Bureau, Office of Adolescent Health and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to provide a context for the findings of the recently released SAMHSA report, School Mental Health Services in the United States, 2002-2003. Appendices include the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health recommendations, information about reframing how schools address barriers to learning, some natural opportunities to enhance mental health in schools, guidelines for mental health in schools, examples of policy statements for a unified approach in schools, and examples of provisions in Federal law that allow districts to redeploy federal resources to improve systems.
Exemplary Mental Health Programs: School Psychologists as Mental Health Service Providers (Third Edition) (http://www.naspcenter.org/exemplary.html) by B. Nastasi, K. Pluymert, and K. Vargas. Bethesda, MD: National Association of School Psychologists, 2002.
This study documents the need for mental health programs in schools, examines the research on school-based mental health services, considers the role school psychologists can play in implementing these services, and identifies and discusses exemplary school-based and community-based mental health services in which school psychologists were involved.
Instituting School-Based Links with Mental Health and Social Service Agencies (http://www.ncjrs.org/pdffiles1/ojjdp/book6.pdf) by D. Osher and S. Keenan. Portland, OR: Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, 2002.
This guide discusses how schools can improve their capacity to serve all students by linking with mental health and social service agencies.
Promoting Positive Mental and Emotional Health in Teens: Some Lessons from Research. Child Trends Research Brief (http://www.childtrends.org/_catdisp_page.cfm?LID=141) by J. Zaff, J. Calkins, L. Bridges, and N. Margie. Washington, DC: Child Trends, 2002.
A review of nearly 300 research studies on teens’ mental health and emotional well-being that suggests that mental health programs that use comprehensive, integrated approaches are most effective in preventing such problems as conduct disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and alcohol and drug abuse. In addition, research suggests that starting prevention programs early may ward off a number of mental and behavioral problems in adolescents and young adults and that programs aimed at improving one aspect of teens’ emotional well-being may also have positive effects on other aspects of mental health.
Strategies to Support the Emotional Wellness of Children, Families , and Staff: Findings from a Head Start Mental Health Task Force. (http://ccf.edc.org/Strategiesformentalhealth.pdf) by A. Borg and M. Irvin. Newton, MA: New England Regional Access Project, Education Development Center, 2002.
This document summarized a Head Start Mental Health Task Force meeting in which New England Head Start Directors and mental health managers; Head Start-State Collaboration Officers; representatives of state agencies, including departments of mental health, education, and public health; and the Federal Administration for Children and Families. In all, 35 individuals participated in sharing information on practices, successes, and the challenges of supporting both children’s social and emotional development and wellness of families and staff in Head Start and Early Head Start programs.
Suspending Disbelief: Moving Beyond Punishment to Promote Effective Interventions for Children with Mental or Emotional Disorders (http://www.bazelon.org/issues/children/publications/suspending/
suspendingdisbelief.pdf) Washington, DC: Bazelton Center for Mental Health Law, 2003.
This report compares congressional intent regarding “free and appropriate education” for all children with disabilities (as mandated in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) with administrative and court decisions interpreting these provisions (and thus the actual implementation of the mandate). The analysis focuses on the use of Functional Behavioral Assessments and Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, two specific tools mentioned in the statute.
Teaming Up: Using the IDEA and Medicaid to Secure Comprehensive Mental Health Services for Children and Youth (http://www.bazelon.org/issues/children/publications/teamingup/report.pdf) Washington, DC: Bazelton Center for Mental Health Law, 2003.
This publication informs practitioners – attorneys and advocates who are not familiar with Medicaid, and Medicaid attorneys and advocates who do not know the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act or who have little experience in using Medicaid – how they may obtain the services and supports needed by children with emotional and behavioral disorders.
Publications Available for Purchase
Note: These publications are available for purchase from the sources listed below, not from NCMHPYVP.
Community Treatment for Youth: Community-Based Interventions for Youth with Severe Emotional Disorders edited by J. Burns and K. Hoagwood. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. Available for purchase online at http://www.us.oup.com/us
This volume features community-based services for youth with severe emotional and behavioral disorders and their families, describing each intervention, along with the supporting evidence for its utility. It was designed to update professionals about effective services.
Handbook of Early Intervention (2nd edition). Edited by J. Shonkoff, and S. Meisels. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Available for purchase online at http://us.cambridge.org/
This book is an invaluable resource on intervention, resiliency, assessment, service delivery and public policy.
Handbook of Infant Mental Health (2nd edition). Edited by C. Zeanah Jr., C.
New York: Guilford Press, 1999. Available for purchase online at http://www.guilford.com
This book is considered the source book by many professionals in the field. It offers a broad interdisciplinary analysis of the developmental, clinical, and social aspects of mental health from birth to age three. Topics covered include development of the infant in context; developmental psychopathology; frequently encountered disorders of infancy; approaches to clinical assessment and intervention; and social policy applications.
Psychosocial Treatments for Children and Adolescents: Empirically Based Strategies for Clinical Practice edited by E. Hibbs and P. Jenson. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 1996. Available for purchase online at http://www.apa.org/books
A book for practitioners, treatment researchers, students, health care administrators, and others who make decisions about mental health services for children and adolescents. This volume describes treatment strategies in their environmental and theoretical contexts and presents information on the manuals and guidelines that will help practitioners translate research interventions into practice strategies.
Reducing the Risk for Mental Disorders: Frontiers for Preventive Intervention Research edited by P. Mrazek and R. Haggerty. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1994. Available for purchase online at http://www.nap.edu
This Congressionally-mandated study reviewed advances in ability to reduce risk factors for mental disorders and provides a definition of prevention and a conceptual framework that emphasizes risk reduction, highlighting opportunities for and barriers to interventions. The model programs and research described provide a framework for the design, application, and evaluation of interventions to prevent mental disorders and the transfer of knowledge about prevention from research to clinical practice. The book also presents a focused research agenda, with recommendations on how to develop effective intervention programs, create a cadre of prevention researchers, and improve coordination among Federal agencies.
