Jefferson County School District, the largest school district in Colorado, commissioned a study to examine the type and extent of mental health needs of elementary school children, the impact of these needs, and appropriate recommendations for the district. Elementary schools were ranked according to estimated socioeconomic status of the students…

Community mental health centers have been faced with mandates to introduce new programs or improve old ones often without the necessary information or expertise to implement such changes. Community mental health centers (N=39) were studied to identify the nature and extent of information use and factors related to information use. Experts visited…

A consultant is often an effective source of assistance for an agency undergoing change. Community mental health centers (N=80) randomly assigned to treatment and control groups were studied to determine the impact of problem-oriented consultation on problem solution, and the characteristics of both consultant and consultee which are critical in…

Use of client records and census data as a research methodology can provide mental health planners with information on community needs as well as the adequacy of existing programs. Three ways of analyzing client records in conjunction with census data are: (1) tract by tract, comparing client geographic distribution with census characteristics;…

The Southwest Iowa Mental Health Center recently completed a 4-year project to increase use of mental health services by normally reluctant rural populations and to increase coping ability among persons affected by the farm crisis. During the first 2 years, program goals included aggressive outreach to potential patients, mental health education…

Issues are presented which concern today's children, even those growing up under the best of environmental, social, and economic conditions. All will face an increased probability of emotional stress accompanying problems of living, undoubtedly resulting in increased demands upon child mental health services. The history of child mental health…

This paper focuses on the problems of discrimination and disadvantagement faced by Asian and Pacific Americans. It is argued that discrimination and institutional racism have a negative effect on the mental health of this minority group. Recommendations made by a subpanel to the President's Commission on Mental Health to deal with these problems…

This brief paper on a topical discussion session held at a conference on children's mental health about implications of the 1999 report, "Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General," for children. The discussion focuses primarily on the chapter in the report specifically about children and mental health with comments by four individuals who…

This paper contains an outline of a workshop designed for the disaster mental health worker. The goal of the workshop is to describe how disaster services are different from other mental health services and to provide suggestions on how to make these services more effective. The types of disasters, the anatomy of a disaster, and time phases of a…

This document discusses a project designed to assess trends in service data and the effectiveness of the services provided over a 10-year period. It begins by describing the services provided by the Wilder Foundation Child Guidance Clinic, an outpatient mental health center serving children and families in the Saint Paul, Minnesota area. A number…

The study evaluated the emotional stability of 465 children (grades 2 through 12) in special education programs for the gifted compared to that of 329 children attending regular classroom programs. Two anxiety scales were used in the study: the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale and the Trait Scale of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for…

The purpose of this study was to guide the types of services that mental health centers provide to the Asian community in the United States. Specifically the goals of the needs assessment were to: (1) identify the counseling needs of Asian Americans; (2) describe the degree and patterns of the use of mental health and counseling services in the…

The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, affected the psychological health of individuals of all ages in the U.S. Compared to other age groups, older adults often experience more difficulty in obtaining disaster assistance. Therefore, an outreach team was formed specifically to assist nursing home residents as part of a community effort at a…

This paper describes an ongoing national survey to provide baseline data on mental health services delivered in public elementary, middle, and secondary schools. The survey will: (1) identify and describe models and arrangements for the delivery of mental health services and document which models are most prevalent; (2) identify and describe the…

The multivariate generalizability of the Role Functioning Scale (RFS), which serves as a replacement for the global ratings of the Social Adjustment Scale, was studied with 396 severely disturbed clients of a public mental-health bureau. Generalizability of single subscales was less than that of the combined subscales. (SLD)