Serious emotional disturbance

Mattison, R.E. (1997) Use of psychotropic medications in special education students with serious emotional disturbance. / Child Adolesc Psychopharmacol 7 149-155. 

Duncan, B.B., Forness, S.R., and Hartsough, C. (1995) Students identified as seriously emotionally disturbed in day treatment classrooms cognitive, psychiatric and special education characteristics. Behav Disord 20 238—252. 

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). 

Osher, D., Osher, T. (1996). The National agenda for children and youth with serious emotional disturbances. In M. Nelson, R. Rutherford, and B. Wolford (Eds.), Comprehensive Collaborative Systems that Work for Troubled Youth A National Agenda (pp. 149-164). Richmond, KY National Coalition for Juvenile Justice Services. 

U. S. Department of Education (1994). National agenda for improving results for children and youth with serious emotional disturbance. Washington, DC Author. 

Bruns, E. J., Walrath, C Siegel, G. M., Weist, M. D. (in press). School-based mental health services in Baltimore Association with school climate and special education referrals. Behavior Modification. Cole, R., Poe, S. (1993). Partnerships for care Systems of care for children with serious emotional disturbances and their families. Interim report of the mental health services program for youth. Washington. DC Washington Business Group on Health. 

Under federal education law, active participation is mandated for those children eligible for special education and related services to ensure that they and their parents feel supported by the school system. While an exceedingly valuable mandate, there are often barriers to family involvement created by administrative structures and service delivery mechanisms within schools. To address these difficulties, the National Agenda for Achieving Better Results for Children and Youth with Serious Emotional Disturbance (2000) suggests the following approaches that schools can employ ... 

National Agenda for Achieving Better Results for Children and Youth with Serious Emotional Disturbance (2000). Washington, DC U.S. Department of Education Author. 

Magrab, P. R., Young, T., Waddell, A. (1985). Developing collaborative services for seriously emotionally disturbed children. Washington, DC Georgetown University Child Development Center. 

Burns, B. J. (1999). A call for a mental health services research agenda for youth with serious emotional disturbance. Mental Health Services Research, 1, 5-20. 

Serving the Most Severe of Serious Emotionally Disturbed Students in School Settings... 

This chapter focuses on children with extreme forms of psychopathology and very poor adaptive functioning. Many school and community mental health settings label this group of children as having serious emotional disturbance (sed) for purposes of funding and access to services, but there is variability in local or state criteria for sed. Common elements of sed definitions generally include the federal definition of the Individual with Disabilities Education Act (idea, 1997). As defined by Federal Law (cfr Parts 300 and 303) ... 

Various mental health units for intensive therapeutic interventions for children with serious emotional disturbances have been created over the years under... 

From Vemberg, E. M., Roberts, M. G Nyre, J. E. (in press). School-based intensive mental health treatment. In D. T. Marsh M. A. Fristad (Eds.), Handbook of serious emotional disturbance in children and adolescents. New York Wiley. 

Friedman, R. M., Katz-Leavy, J. W., Mandersheid, R. W., Sonderheimer, D. L. (1996). Prevalence of serious emotional disturbance in chOdren and adolescents. In R. W. Mandersheid M.A. Sonnenschein (Eds.), Mental health, United States, 1996 (p. 83) (DHHS Publication No. SMA 96-3098). Washington, DC U.S. Government Printing Office. 

Koyanagi, C., Gaines, S. (1993). All systems failure An examination of the results of neglecting the needs of children with serious emotional disturbance. Alexandria, VA National Mental Health... 

Marder, C. (1992). Secondary school students classified as serious emotionally disturbed How are they being served Menlo Park, CA SRI International. 

The Center for Mental Health Services (1997) estimates that from 9 to 13% of all children aged 9-17 have a serious emotional disturbance that either impairs or substantially interferes with their ability to function effectively at home, school, or within the community. More than 20 years ago, Knitzer (1982) found that two-thirds of children in need did not receive mental health services. Since the publication of that landmark report, concerns about the small number of youth with mental disorders who receive mental health services have not lessened (Leaf, Bogrov, Webb, 1997 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1999). Although recent research suggests that a greater proportion of children in need of mental services now receive them (Costello et al., 1993 Leaf et al., 1996), few communities can claim that all or even most youth identified as having mental or emotional problems receive effective services. 

Stroul, B. A., Friedman, R. M. (1986). A system of care for seriously emotionally disturbed children and youth, Washington, DC CASSP Technical Assistance Center, Georgetown University Child Development Center. 

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