SRCD - Healthy Development: A Summit on Children's Mental Health

In April, 2009, the Society for Research in Child Development was the lead sponsor for an interdisciplinary summit on children's mental health, which was held at the University of Denver. There were more than twenty other sponsoring groups, listed here. The summit was designed to emphasize collaboration among researchers, mental health experts, other stakeholders and communication scientists about the importance of children's mental health for optimal development in order to inform public attitudes and public policy.
The format of the Summit included a few presentations designed to catalyze discussion, but the real work of the meeting happened in four small groups; each focused on one of the following topics: (1) The importance of mental health for normal child development; (2) Everyday challenges for parents and child mental health; (3) Prevention opportunities in child mental health; and (4) Child mental health disorders: Treatment works.

Each group aimed to discuss, among those findings that are empirically supported, what are the most critical and useful ideas to improve public understanding? The summit was dedicated to the life and work of Jane Knitzer.

Read the report from the summit online at:  http://www.srcd.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=353&Itemid=1