Introduction: People with intellectual disability (ID) face barriers to accessing mental healthcare. Individuals who have had significant experience in intellectual disability mental health (IDMH) can provide insights into strategies to overcome these barriers. Methods: This historical investigation applied an interpretive descriptive approach…

In the United States, health insurance coverage for autism spectrum disorder treatments has been historically limited. In response, as of 2015, 40 states and Washington, DC, have passed state autism insurance mandates requiring many health plans in the private insurance market to cover autism diagnostic and treatment services. This study examined…

Relatively little has been published on mental health care and counseling as they pertain to Armenia, a country of approximately three million residents that gained independence in 1991 from the former Soviet Union. Various influences, such as its history, economy, religious and family systems, and a major natural disaster in 1988, have affected…

Professional family peer advocates are increasingly employed by public mental health systems to deliver family-to-family support that reduces barriers families face in accessing children's mental health care. These services, however, are neither uniformly available nor standardized. This pilot study describes the process, content and context of…

Family-to-family services are emerging as an important adjunctive service to traditional mental health care and a vehicle for improving parent engagement and service use in children's mental health services. In New York State, a growing workforce of Family Peer Advocates (FPA) is delivering family-to-family services. We describe the development…

Access to, and delivery of, safe and culturally appropriate health services is increasingly important in New Zealand. This paper will focus on counting the costs of health advocacy through the experience of a small non government charitable organisation, the Health Advocates Trust, (HAT) which aimed to provide advocacy services for a wide range of…

In light of the rapidly changing demographics of the United States, it is imperative for counselor educators and trainers of mental health professionals to infuse instructional strategies that promote multicultural and social justice (MSJ) competencies for trainees. The purpose of this article is to translate MSJ-based teaching strategies within…

We describe the development of a parent empowerment program (PEP) using a community-based participatory research approach. In collaboration with a group of dedicated family advocates working with the Mental Health Association of New York City and state policy makers, academic researchers took an iterative approach to crafting and refining PEP to…

Background: Children and adolescents with mental health problems have poor service cover in low- and middle-income countries. Little is known about the resources that would be required to provide child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) in these countries. The purpose of this study was to calculate the human resources and associated…

An individual tells his story of how mental health problems got him to prison and how prison mental health services were difficult to obtain and inappropriate at times. He had to demand that he receive adequate treatment. Mike Weaver currently advocates for mental health services and treating people rather than extending their prison sentences.

Thirty-seven of 43 (86%) agencies operating child welfare residential treatment centers in New York State responded to a survey about the provision of mental health services. Questions were asked about provision of services, satisfaction with services, and suggestions for improvement in five domains: therapeutic milieu, individual therapy, group…

Integrating consumer/survivor/recovering (C/S/R) women in the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's Women, Co-Occurring Disorders and Violence Study involved both struggles and growth. The C/S/R women and all of our professional allies, both individually and collectively, greatly enhanced the study by overcoming what earlier…

The purpose of this article is to report on the system-level findings of a longitudinal study of four mental health consumer-run self-help organizations. Quantitative and qualitative data revealed that staff and members of the four Consumer/Survivor Initiatives (CSIs) participated actively in system-level activities, including community planning,…

In this article we describe the development and implementation of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's (SAMHSA's) multisite Women, Co-Occurring Disorders and Violence Study (WCDVS), highlighting some of the challenges encountered, decisions made, and lessons learned. Four themes are discussed. First, the unique…

This theme issue of a bulletin on family support and children's mental health focuses on managed care and the impact on children who are in need of mental health services. Articles include: "Private Sector Managed Care and Children's Mental Health" (Ira S. Lourie and others); "Just What Is Managed Care?" (Chris Koyanagi);…