CMHS Program Spotlight - Child, Adolescent and Family Branch
February 2003

The Child, Adolescent and Family Branch of the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) promotes and ensures that the mental health needs of children and their families are met within the context of community-based systems of care.

In many communities, services for young people with serious emotional disturbances are unavailable, inappropriate, or too expensive. As a result, many children and adolescents with mental health issues end up in the juvenile justice system, and parents are sometimes forced to give up custody of their children to obtain much needed services. In addition, there are often long waiting lists for non-existent services, and, when children and their families do receive care, services may be fragmented and involve various treatment providers with different treatment plans that offer little or no continuity of care.

The Child, Adolescent and Family Branch administers the Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services Program for Children and Their Families to improve the delivery of mental health services and supports to children and adolescents with serious emotional disturbances and their families. This program brings together mental health, primary health, education, juvenile justice, child welfare, and substance abuse treatment agencies to create unified community-based "systems of care." These systems of care offer children with serious emotional disturbances and their families with a full array of coordinated mental health and support services in or close to home. In a system of care, a team of people that includes the parents, a mental health provider, possibly a teacher, and other professionals develops a coordinated treatment plan that is tailored to the child's individual needs, integrates the full spectrum of service needs, and involves the family in all aspects of the planning and delivery of services. A system of care not only keeps families intact, but also strengthens them.

Preliminary studies suggest that, at any given time, at least one in five children and adolescents may have a mental health problem. Without treatment, a mental health problem can lead to a variety of additional problems, including school failure, family discord, alcohol and other drug use, violence, or suicide. The National Institute of Mental Health estimates that depression affects up to 25 percent of children and about 8 percent of adolescents in the United States. Tragically, an estimated two-thirds of these young people who need mental health services are not getting them. The CMHS Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services Program for Children and Their Families promotes effective ways to organize, coordinate, and deliver mental health services and supports for children, adolescents, and their families.

The Child, Adolescent and Family Branch is also engaged in a full-scale social marketing campaign to increase public awareness about mental health problems that affect children. Known as the Caring for Every Child's Mental Health campaign, its overarching goal is to stimulate support for the systems-of-care approach. The campaign was designed to work in tandem with the Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services Program for Children and Their Families. The Campaign Resource Group, an advisory body comprised of 10 representatives from ethnically diverse backgrounds, is the primary vehicle for achieving the Campaign's objectives, which include increasing public awareness and understanding of children's mental health needs; increasing awareness and support for systems of care; and enhancing the social marketing and communications capacity of grant communities. This advisory group provides the Campaign with community-based representatives, including family members, to guide national and local public education and social marketing efforts.

The Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services Program for Children and Their Families and the Caring for Every Child's Mental Health campaign are just two examples of the critical work that CMHS fosters throughout the Nation to improve children's mental health.