Report Of The Surgeon General S Conference On Children S Mental Health

Conference held Sept. 18-19, 2000, Washington, DC. The purpose of the conference was to engage a group of citizens in a thoughtful, meaningful dialogue about issues of prevention, identification, recognition, and referral of children with mental health needs to appropriate, evidence-based treatments or services.

Report of a conference on the burden of suffering experienced by children with mental health needs and their families, which has created a health crisis in this country. Three hundred participants were invited, representing a broad cross-section of mental health stakeholders, including youth and family members, professional organizations and associations, advocacy groups, faith-based practitioners, clinicians, educators, healthcare providers, and members of the scientific community and the healthcare industry. This conference enlisted their help in developing recommendations for a National Action Agenda on Children's Mental Health.

The burden of suffering experienced by children with mental health needs and their families has created a health crisis in this country. Growing numbers of children are suffering needlessly because their emotional, behavioral, and developmental needs are not being met by those very institutions which were explicitly created to take care of them. It is time that we as a Nation took seriously the task of preventing mental health problems and treating mental illnesses in youth. The mental health needs of our children have elicited interest from the highest level of government, including the White House and members of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. This Report of the Surgeon General's Conference on Children's Mental Health: A National Action Agenda represents an extraordinary level of collaboration among three major Federal Departments: the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Education, and the Department of Justice. This report introduces a blueprint for addressing children's mental health in the United States. It reflects the culmination of a number of significant activities over the past year. On March 20, 2000, a White House Meeting launched a new public private effort to improve the appropriate diagnosis and treatment of children with emotional and behavioral conditions. Serious concerns were raised about the appropriate diagnosis and treatment of emotional and behavioral difficulties in children, and the need to take steps to address this issue. On June 26, 2000, the Surgeon General's Listening Session on Children's Mental Health was hosted. On September 18 and 19, 2000, the Surgeon General's Conference on Children's Mental Health: Developing a National Action Agenda was held in Washington, DC. Three hundred participants were invited, representing a broad cross-section of mental health stakeholders, including youth and family members, professional organizations and associations, advocacy groups, faith-based practitioners, clinicians, educators, healthcare providers, and members of the scientific community and the healthcare industry. This conference enlisted the help of the participants in developing specific recommendations for a National Action Agenda on Children's Mental Health. A related meeting on Psychopharmacology for Young Children: Clinical Needs and Research Opportunities, was held by the National Institute of Mental Health and the Food and Drug Administration on October 2nd and 3rd, 2000. Recommendations from these two meetings formed the basis of this national action agenda. One of the chief priorities in the Office of the Surgeon General and Assistant Secretary for Health has been to work to ensure that every child has an optimal chance for a healthy start in life. When we think about a healthy start, we often limit our focus to physical health. But, as clearly articulated in the Surgeon General's Report on Mental Health, mental health is fundamental to overall health and well-being. And that is why we must ensure that our health system responds as readily to the needs of children's mental health as it does to their physical well-being. One way to do so is to move the country towards a community health system that balances health promotion, disease prevention, early detection and universal access to care. That system must include a balanced research agenda, including basic, biomedical, clinical, behavioral, health services, school-based and community-based prevention and intervention research, and it must include a new invigorated approach to mental health. Mental healthcare is dispersed across multiple systems: schools, primary care, the juvenile justice system, child welfare and substance abuse treatment. But the first system is the family, and this agenda reflects the voices of youth and family. The vision and goals outlined in this agenda represent an unparalleled opportunity to make a difference in the quality of life for America's children.

Current statistics on child abuse, neglect, poverty, and hunger shock the conscience—doubly so as societal structures set up to assist families are failing them. More than ever, the responsibility of the helping professions extends from aiding individuals and families to securing social justice for the larger community. With this duty in clear sight, the contributors to Child and Family Advocacy assert that advocacy is neither a dying art nor a lost cause but a vital platform for improving children's lives beyond the scope of clinical practice. This uniquely practical reference builds an ethical foundation that defines advocacy as a professional competency and identifies skills that clinicians and researchers can use in advocating at the local, state and federal levels. Models of the advocacy process coupled with first-person narratives demonstrate how professionals across disciplines can lobby for change. Among the topics discussed: Promoting children's mental health: collaboration and public understanding. Health reform as a bridge to health equity. Preventing child maltreatment: early intervention and public education Changing juvenile justice practice and policy. A multi-level framework for local policy development and implementation. When evidence and values collide: preventing sexually transmitted infections. Lessons from the legislative history of federal special education law. Child and Family Advocacy is an essential resource for researchers, professionals and graduate students in clinical child and school psychology, family studies, public health, developmental psychology, social work and social policy.

A keyword listing of serial titles currently received by the National Library of Medicine.

This issue consists of five articles profiling different aspects of the national evaluation of the Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services for Children and Their Families Program. Over the last eight years, this program provided grants to develop community-based systems of care for children with serious emotional disturbance and their families. A comprehensive, multilevel evaluation has been conducted that has provided information to local grantee communities and the federal government on the implementation and effectiveness of systems of care. Touching on a range of questions that the evaluation is designed to address, the articles in this special issue provide more general information on the system-of-care approach to addressing children's mental health problems.