Resilience

Unclaimed Children Revisited: The Status of Children's Mental Health Policy in the United States

The National Center for Children in Poverty, by Janice L. Cooper, Yumiko Aratani, et al, November 2008.

Executive Summary

Over 25 years ago Jane Knitzer, in the report Unclaimed Children: The Failure of Public Responsibility to Children in Need of Mental Health Services, documented policy and program disconnects that meant children and youth with mental health needs and their families did not get the services they needed.* That report, along with family advocacy, served as a spur to improve service delivery for the most troubled children. In the intervening years, there has also been an explosion of knowledge about the biological and social determinants of children’s mental health issues, new understandings of how children and their problems develop, and new ways of providing preventive and treatment services. And so, more than a quarter of a century later, NCCP posed the central question for today’s children’s mental health system: to what extent is this new knowledge incorporated into the policy and practice frameworks governing children’s mental health?

This report is based on a study that documents how current child mental health policies across the United States respond to the needs of children and youth with mental health problems, those at risk, and their families. Our aim was to identify best policy practices that support family- and youth-focused, researchinformed, developmentally appropriate, culturally and linguistically competent services and supports.  (NCCP)

Click here to read more or download the full report.

InBrief Series: Early Childhood Science and Policy

Harvard University, Center on the Developing Child.

This three-part series offers short summaries of the scientific presentations given at the National Symposium on Early Childhood Science and Policy in June 2008. Each is available in print form and in video form.  Presentations are as follows:

• The Science of Early Childhood Development
• The Impact of Early Adversity on Children's Development
• Early Childhood Program Effectiveness.

To watch or read the presentations, at the Center on the Develop Child web site, click here.

Trauma Faced by Children of Military Families

Trauma Faced by Children of Military Families: What Every Policymaker Should Know.   National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP), Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, by Fianna Sogomonyan and Janice L. Cooper, May 2010

Abstract:

Active duty military personnel and National Guard and reservists experience multiple deployments as a result of the conflicts that comprise the War on Terror. A large body of research has accumulated on the behavioral health problems faced by military personnel as a result of these conflicts. After nearly a decade of war, a growing area of research shows the negative impact on children, youth and families of U.S. military personnel. Children of military families often experience multiple stressors before and during their parent’s deployment and when they come home. Without appropriate mental health support systems, children of military personnel may be at a significant disadvantage compared with their peers in non-military families.

Promoting the Social-Emotional Wellbeing of Infants and Toddlers in Early Intervention Programs

Promising Strategies in Four Communities, Taniesha A. Woods, Sheila Smith, and Janice L. Cooper, National Center for Children in Poverty, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University,June 2010

This brief presents promising approaches to support the social-emotional wellbeing of infants and toddlers through the Part C Program. The strategies discussed in this brief were identified through case studies carried out in four communities: Boston, Massachusetts; Los Angeles County, California; Doña Ana County, New Mexico; and Southeast Kansas. These case studies were part of a larger project designed to show different policy options that states use to support strategies that target social-emotional development as part of a comprehensive approach to early intervention services. Findings from the larger survey are reported in Promoting Social-Emotional Wellbeing in Early Intervention Services: A Fifty State View. As a companion to the survey report, this brief examines exemplary policies and practices that highlight the potential of the Part C Early Intervention Program to play a major role in reducing the risk of long-term social-emotional and behavioral difficulties of vulnerable children.

Read the full article here...

Unclaimed Children Revisited: Focusing on Outcomes - A Case Study of the Michigan Level of Functioning Project

Unclaimed Children Revisited:  Focusing on Outcomes - A Case Study of the Michigan Level of Functioning Project,  by Patti Banghart and Janice L. Cooper, National Center for Children in Poverty, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, May 2010

Unclaimed Children Revisited (UCR) updates Unclaimed Children: The Failure of Public Responsibility to Children in Need of Mental Health Services (1982), a seminal report authored by NCCP’s former director, Dr. Jane Knitzer. The initial report served to rally the child and adolescent mental health field to take policy action towards reform.

The current study is a multi-pronged initiative that generates new knowledge about policies across the United States that promote or inhibit the delivery of high-quality mental health services and supports to children, youth, and families. The initiative encompasses four main projects:

• national survey of state-level children’s mental health directors and advocates;
• statewide case study of California, with a focus on 11 counties;
• case study of outcomes-based management in children’s mental health service delivery in Michigan; and,
• working paper series that explore the state of the field on family and youth engagement, financing, trauma, school-based mental health and cross-systems support of effective practices.

Read the full report here...