Child and Family Advocacy is a road map to help you help your child. You know your child best and when you get that "gut" feeling that something is wrong, you are usually correct. What do you do? What are the laws? Who is on your side?

Topic: This article assesses the availability and nature of transition-to-adulthood service programs in child and adult state mental health systems across the United States. Results from this research emphasize that transition-to-adulthood service programs are lacking in both availability and accessibility, signaling the need for increased awareness and funding to best assist young people with mental illness undergo this transition.

Self Determination Guide for Parents
This guide will was made to assist parents interested in helping their children transition from high school to the next step whether it be college or something else.

Exceptional Parent Magazine
EP’s on-line resource. Continuing 35 award-winning years of providing information, support, ideas, encouragement & outreach for parents and families of children with disabilities, and the professionals who work with them.

Mental health provider attitudes toward organizational change have not been well studied.Dissemination and implementation of evidence-based practices (EBPs) into real-world settings represent organizational change that may be limited or facilitated by provider attitudestoward adoption of new treatments, interventions, and practices. A brief measure of mentalhealth provider attitudes toward adoption of EBPs was developed and attitudes were examined

Parents sometimes are told that a child needs to be restrained or put into seclusion while at school or while in a treatment program.  This is VERY RARELY necessary because Positive Behavior Support can prevent the need.   Avertive therapy is NOT a best practice and is not recommended for children and youth. 

Legal E-Bulletin - August 2005 The Problem with 'Interacting with Others'

When you're in and out of psychiatric wards, said Gayle Scarbrough, its hard to maintain a place to live. Suffering from schizoaffective disorder and a drug addiction that only made her hallucinations more terrifying, Ms. scarbrough slept in parks,under bridges, in shelters,anywhere she could. "my family's kind of messed up,so they couldn't provide any support," she explained. "As for freinds, a person can only take so much when I"m having mental issues and drug problems. I did'nt really have anywhere to go." Then Ms.

Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD)is the inability to correctly process information brought in by the senses. Everyday,we receive a great deal of information from our senses.We use this information to organize our behavior and successfully interact in the world. our senses give us information about the physical status of our bodys and the environment around us. Children with SPD misinterpret everyday sensory information,such as touch,sound,and movement.

NICHCY is an information and referal center that provides information on disabilities and disability-related issues Children and youth with disabilities (birth to age 22 )are our special focus.

Search Institute is an independant nonprofit org. whose mission it is to provide leadership,knowledge,and resources to promote healthy children,youth and communities. to accomplish this mission the institute generates and communicates new knowledge and brings together community,State,and National leaders.At the heart of the institutes work is the framework of 40 Developmental Assetts which are posative exsperiences and personal qualities that young people need to grow up healthy caring and responsable.

The resiliancy youth development program focuses on cross-diciplinary strategies to prevent substance abuse,Tobacco,suicide,teen pregnancy,delinquency and school failure. The program emphasizes the posative qualities and behaviors needed for youth to become healthy,successful and responsable.

This is a web site that give a history of mental health from 1188 A.D. until 2005 A.D. It is well referenced and has information arranged in therapeutic periods: Genesis of asylums From 1377, Asylum Care From 1840 and Community Care From 1940s

The National Library of Medicine (NLM), on the campus of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, is the world's largest medical library. The Library collects materials in all areas of biomedicine and health care, as well as works on biomedical aspects of technology, the humanities, and the physical, life, and social sciences. The collections stand at more than 7 million items--books, journals, technical reports, manuscripts, microfilms, photographs and images. Housed within the Library is one of the world's finest medical history collections of old and rare medical works.

The massive Global Burden Of Disease study conducted by the World Health Organization, the World Bank, and Harvard University measured the leading causes of disability (counting lost years of healthy life). In developed countries, the ten leading causes of lost years of healthy life at ages 15-44 were: (1) Major Depressive Disorder, (2) Alcohol Use, (3) Road Traffic Accidents, (4) Schizophrenia, (5) Self-Inflicted Injuries, (6) Bipolar Disorder, (7) Drug Use, (8) Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders, (9) Osteoarthritis, (10) Violence. "

The objects of the American Psychological Association shall be to advance psychology as a science and profession and as a means of promoting health, education, and human welfare by the encouragement of psychology in all its branches in the broadest and most liberal manner the promotion of research in psychology and the improvement of research methods and conditions the improvement of the qualifications and usefulness of psychologists through high standards of ethics, conduct, education, and achievement the establishment and maintenance of the highest standards of professional ethics and conduc

This list provides professionals from a variety of disciplines to discuss the issues that arise when children are exposed to domestic violence and when child maltreatment and domestic violence co-occur. It is open to anyone interested in discussing the issues around these cases. The list is supported by a grant from the David and Lucille Packard Foundation and is part of our ongoing project to involve attorneys in efforts to improve practice in cases involving domestic violence and children.

This group is open only to attorneys and judges, discusses issues that arise in the litigation of civil and criminal child abuse and neglect and related cases. It discusses legal precedents, tactical concerns, and practical solutions to specific issues that arise during litigation. The purpose of the group is to help attorneys and judges explore how to better handle their cases. It is not to discuss general issues of court reform and improvement.

The AACAP developed Facts for Families to provide concise and up-to-date information on issues that affect children, teenagers, and their families. The AACAP provides this important information as a public service and the Facts for Families may be duplicated and distributed free of charge as long as the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry is properly credited and no profit is gained from their use. The AACAP has produced the Facts for Families in English and Spanish. Other translations available on the same site.

2005 Census Data Regarding People With Disabilities - Information Bulletin #186 (12/06)

In the year 2002, an estimated 7.7 percent (plus or minus 0.2 percentage points) of civilian, non-institutionalized, men and women, aged 18-64 in the United States reported a disability. In other words, 13,474,000 out of 174,896,000 (or about one in 13) civilian, non-institutionalized, men and women, aged 18-64 in the United States reported a disability. The estimated percentage above is based on a sample of 128,588 persons who participated in the Current Population Survey (CPS).

This report identifies the problems of homelessnes in the greater Anchorage area and lists the activity needed to combat some of the problems.  The Homeless Taskforce website has a wealth of information and links documenting the planning process, and providing access to numerous backup documents.

The report contains (a) some literature review on how people access mental health services,  (b) trends in discharge rates for mental disorder only, mental disorder & medical, and mental disorder & substance use disorder  and (c) a discussion of the cost and implications of the reduction of inpatient services..  It was published by the substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) based on 2002 data.   http://oas.samhsa.gov/HSR/toc.htm

Major site with health information, library services and access to research and publication databases.