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The federal Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) marked its fifth anniversary last month by announcing new initiatives ranging from grants to improve children’s mental health to a study of how states can measure their mental health services.
"In the face of dramatic changes impacting the mental health system such as state-level health care reform initiatives, the growth of managed care, welfare reform, and the Social Security disability reform, CMHS is considering new ways to enhance its effectiveness through a positive vision of mental health that leads the nation into the 21st century," according to CMHS Director Bernard Arons, M.D.
Nine new children’s mental health grants totaling $8 million were announced last month by CMHS. The grants will be used to implement and study a broad array of managed care approaches to community-based and family-focused services for children with serious emotional disturbance and their families, according to a CMHS press statement.
The grants also will enable local communities to integrate child and family service agencies including mental health, substance abuse treatment, child welfare, and education.
"The results from these grantee sites will produce a sound service philosophy and an exemplary service model [that] can be introduced in other communities throughout the nation," said Arons.
The Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services for Children and Their Families Program is working to demonstrate that children and their families can receive effective, accessible treatment and support through a wide range of organized community-based mental health and related services, the press release states.
In conjunction with the grant program, CMHS is conducting a national public education campaign emphasizing the importance of caring for every child’s mental health.
CMHS also announced a new program totaling nearly $2 million to help change high-risk behaviors associated with the rising number of adolescents and women becoming infected with HIV/AIDS (Psychiatric News, November 7).
The goals of the program are to design and test short-term prevention and intervention strategies and identify the best methods to help young people and women use those strategies, according to the press statement.
"There is a gap between what is known about effective and realistic interventions to reduce the transmission of HIV and what is actually delivered in most community-based prevention programs," said Nelba Chavez, Ph.D., administrator of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, of which CMHS is a part.
"Fortunately, the knowledge and principles necessary to develop large-scale, behavior-oriented training tailored to specific at-risk populations are now available," Chavez added.
She also referred to another new CMHS initiative: a study to determine how state mental health systems can effectively measure the success of their mental health services.
The Feasibility Assessment Study will examine the usefulness of developing a performance indicator system that state mental health agencies will then be able to use to document that funds have been spent carefully and desired outcomes have been achieved, according to the press statement.
"This new effort marks a real partnership between the federal government and states," said Chavez.
Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, South Carolina, and Texas are participating in the pilot project. The goal is to identify performance indicators that can be applied to all states.