A Public Health Approach to Children's Mental Health: A Conceptual Framework

Miles, Jon. Espiritu, Rachele C. Horen, Neal M. Sebian, Joyce. Waetzig, Elizabeth.
Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development, National Technical Assistance Center for Children's Mental Health.
Searchlight Consulting.
2010
Sponsoring Organization: United States. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
In the fall of 2007, the Center for Mental Health Services at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, in conjunction with the National Technical Assistance Center for Children's Mental Health at Georgetown University began to develop a monograph that would present a conceptual framework for a public health approach to children's mental health. The proposed monograph would: Draw on well-established public health concepts to present a conceptual framework that was grounded in values, principles, and beliefs; Link environmental supports, services, and interventions across child-serving systems; Identify and promote shared language and definitions that could form a platform for communication between the various child-serving sectors that are integral to success of a public health approach; Provide examples of interventions and policies that have shown promise as components of the new framework; and Suggest how partners, providers, decision-makers, and consumers might use the framework in their communities to strengthen the mental health and resilience of all children. This monograph, written for a broad range of leaders who have a role in bringing about change in their system(s) or organizations and influencing children's mental health and wellbeing, represents the culmination of efforts to develop consensus around the central ideas of the conceptual framework. Because the audience for this monograph is broad, different users will find the content useful in different ways. This document can be used as a whole, or each of the chapters can be used on their own, to educate and provide a foundation for a leader to build upon. Once leaders determine how the information and ideas apply to relevant constituencies, the monograph can be helpful for implementing plans that will benefit children, youth, and families. Each chapter has a distinct purpose and content. The first chapter, in addition to providing an overview and a context, also demonstrates a sense of urgency and a justification for a public health approach. This chapter could be helpful to those who must convince stakeholders or policy makers to engage in this work. The second chapter provides a starting point for groups and coalitions in their work together to build consensus around how to communicate about the effort. Chapters 3 and 4 provide information about the practice of public health and how it has been and could be used to support the mental health of children. In Chapter 5, the conceptual framework of the public health approach to children's mental health and the intervention model are presented. This chapter provides a detailed explanation of the framework as well as a visual representation in both graphic and table form. In chapter 6, leaders will find practical information about how to move this transformation forward. This chapter includes questions that could be used as checklists for groups in any stage of their process as well as examples from the field of how a group has accomplished one or more components of the work. (Author abstract modified)
http://gucchdtacenter.georgetown.edu/public_health.html