Are children’s mental health services getting better? That depends! If you and your child benefit from the help you find, then yes. If things are not going well, it is likely that you are receiving services that are stuck in the past – using approaches that we now know don’t work.

The good news is we do know what works, and many communities in Pennsylvania are adopting effective models. The down side is that not all communities or providers are there yet, and it takes time to retrain staff and often change their beliefs.

PA Children’s News has covered many of the effective models in past issues. You can search in the provided Google box on this page for information on these models, including Family Group Decision Making, Youth-Centered Services, Positive Behavioral Supports, Hi-Fidelity Wraparound, and System of Care.

This month, we are going to cover two of the most important principles in the transformation of the children’s mental health system – family involvement and evidence-based practices.

In Stories from Families the authors remind us how hard it is to parent children with challenging behaviors, and encourages patience and understanding not only from the helpers to the family, but from the families to themselves.  You may want to share your own story through this website’s feature- Speak Out! – Your Story.

Evidence-based Practices are a fairly new idea.  In the past, when a child did not get better, the child or family may have been blamed.  Or the clinician may have offered little hope based on the diagnosis of the child, believing that the child had a limited future and would never go to college, could possibly end up in an institution or prison, and would never be independent.  Starting in the 1990′s, researchers were funded to investigate what helped children with serious emotional disorders.  And two decades later we have many of those proven approaches available in Pennsylvania.