Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services for Children and Their Families

Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services for Children and Their Families Program... 

Sponsoring Agency. The Children s and Communities Mental Health Services Improvement Act of 1992 authorized the Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services for Children and Their Families Program (ccmhp), which is administered by the Center for Mental Health Services/Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (samhsa). samhsa is mandated to improve the quality and availability of prevention, treatment, and rehabilitative services for mental illness and substance abuse in order to reduce illness, death, disability, and other societal cost caused by these problems (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2002). The Center for Mental Health Services (CMHs), placed within samhsa, aims to improve the availability and accessibility of high-quality care for people affected by or at risk for mental disorders and works toward the development of an effective community-based mental health infrastructure for the nation (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2002). 

Special Issue The national evaluation of the Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services for Children and Their Families Program (2001). Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, 9. 

Concerns that disproportionate numbers of children with serious emotional disturbance were being removed from their communities led to the development of systems of care in the 1980s. In 1992, Congress passed the Comprehensive Mental Health Services for Children and Their Families Program which supported the development of these systems of care. A system of care is in or near the home and community. In fiilly developed systems of care, local public and private organizations work in teams with families and children to both plan and implement individualized services for each child s physical, emotional, social, educational, and family needs. Teams include family advocates and representatives fi om mental health, health, education, child welfare, juvenile justice, vocational rehabilitation, recreation, substance abuse, and other services. Systems of care have supported the use of mental health clinicians in schools, school- and community-based wraparound planning and services, and student support services (Woodruff et al., 1999). 

The fourth goal of the conference report on children s mental health calls for the elimination of racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in access to mental health care services. Schools are perceived as an important part of the strategy for enhancing access to mental health services for children. The conference report recommends that mental health services be colocated with other key systems, such as education, to improve access, especially in remote or rural communities. It also advises that if schools resource capacities are strengthened, they can serve as a key link to a comprehensive system of school- and community-based identification, assessment, and treatment services for meeting the needs of youth and their families. 

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