Children's Mental Health

Center for Integrating Education and Prevention Research in Schools (funded by the National Institutes on Drug Abuse and of Mental Health). This AIR center works in the areas of school-based violence prevention, drug prevention, and linking academic reform and student support. The Center is a network of organizations related to prevention science, education research, public education, and public mental health. The AIR Central Site serves as a base for coordinating all activity, and interacts very closely with action sites at which preventive field trials are being implemented and analyzed. Current work includes:

Prevention Services in Schools for Early Drug Abuse Risk. This five-year grant is conducting a randomized field trial in 12 schools to test a classroom-based intervention to prevent substance abuse, violence, comorbid mental and behavioral disorders, and school failure. Intervention components include: 1) teacher’s classroom behavior management; 2) family/classroom partnerships regarding homework and discipline; and 3) teacher’s instructional practices regarding academic subjects, particularly reading. The project is also testing the effectiveness of the support and training structure required to develop and maintain high-quality implementation of the intervention.
Development and Malleability from Childhood to Adulthood. This three-year grant supports the analysis of longitudinal data collected from 2,311 urban young adults who had participated in a randomized prevention field trial in first and second grades. The preventive interventions were designed to prevent aggressive, disruptive behavior and its consequents (the Good Behavior Game) and improve school achievement (Mastery Learning). Participants were first interviewed in the fall of first grade, were followed up annually through middle school, then again at age 21. The work on this grant includes cutting-edge multilevel and latent growth curve analyses.
What Do Schools Really Think About Prevention Research? Blending Research and Reality. The Center assisted the National Institute on Drug Abuse’s Division of Epidemiology, Services, and Prevention Research in convening a conference in April 2003. The conference provided a forum for discussing the challenges inherent in both conducting school-based prevention research and implementing research-based prevention programs in schools. Researchers, practitioners (e.g., school administrators, principals, teachers), and federal agency and state representatives explored their common and differing perspectives on these issues. Themes that emerged included the need to integrate prevention with schools’ academic mission; eliminating obstacles to implementation fidelity; and the need to provide technical assistance and training to enhance teachers’ knowledge and capacity for program implementation.

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Evaluation of Keys for Networking’s Parent Support
The current policymaking environment differentially supports and sustains evidence-based practices for serving children with serious emotional disturbances and their families. For decades, family-run organizations have provided support and advocacy to caregivers of children with mental health, child welfare, special education, or juvenile justice involvement, often at no cost to the families. The interventions provided by these organizations have never been studied, and therefore, there is no evidence base to support their work.

AIR examined the management information system currently used by Keys for Networking - a nationally prominent consumer-run family support organization in Kansas. We built a conceptual model of how their interventions affect families, and developed recommendations for how they could measure the elements of the model. We examined the “journey mapping” scores assigned their families based on their stage of development from 1 (confused, in crisis) to 10 (national advocate), and made recommendations regarding the suitability of this score as an outcome variable. We are currently collaborating with Keys to extend the scope of our evaluation to include mental health measures and study the dissemination of effective parent support practices to new community contexts.

Support of the Client/Patient Sample Survey
Westat is developing and will implement a national Client/Patient Sample Survey (CPSS) in 2005. This survey will update the 1997 CPSS, and will provide data for trend analyses of client/patient characteristics and service use over the 8-year period. In order to address funder priorities, the 2005 survey will include an oversample of children and youth with severe emotional and mental disorders. Through a subcontract, AIR is providing Westat with consultation and expertise for the survey redesign pertaining to issues of children’s mental health, service usage, and systems of care for children and their families.

Long-term Outcomes of Children Receiving Preschool Intervention for Behavioral or Developmental Concerns
This grant examines the long-term effects on school outcomes associated with participating in a promising, intensive preschool intervention for children with behavioral and developmental concerns. The study will also address the mechanisms of impact and cost-effectiveness of a Cleveland-area early intervention program. The study uses a matched-child design to analyze outcomes by type of preschool special education service (private vs. school district-based) and timing of special education (preschool vs. first grade) compared to matched peers. Study results are expected in 2005.

Task Order Contracts with the Child, Adolescent, and Family Branch, Center for Mental Health Services

Systems Improvement Activities to Enhance Children’s Mental Health Services is a contract to assist the Child and Adolescent Branch support the planning, development, and implementation of systems that are comprehensive, community-based, family-focused, and culturally competent. This contract supports both the Children’s Program and the Partnership for Youth Transition Program.
AIR develops and disseminates knowledge to assist local communities in the Children’s Program develop local systems of care and improve collaboration among agencies. The program ensures that services that are currently under-developed or non-existent in most communities, such as respite care, day treatment, therapeutic foster care, intensive home-based, school or clinic-based services, emergency services, therapeutic case management, and diagnostic and evaluation services are funded. The effects of this knowledge are reaching beyond federally funded sites, as communities throughout the country are implementing some of the lessons learned.
The Partnership for Youth Transition Program has funded five cooperative agreements to develop, implement, stabilize, and document models of comprehensive programs to help support youth with serious emotional disturbances or serious mental illness as they enter the period of emerging adulthood. Best practices for addressing issues surrounding education, employment, arrests and incarceration, unplanned pregnancy and childbearing, and the ability to live independently will be shared with communities in the Children’s Program as they strive to best deal with these youths, and will also advance the field of Children’s Mental Health.

Alternative Schools Project
The 1997 Amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA), mandate alternative placement for children with disabilities whose behavior is unacceptable in traditional settings. The No Child Left Behind legislation emphasizes accountability of schools. Together this legislation has drawn our focus toward alternative education. Currently, there is little existing research on how the changes have been implemented and the effectiveness of alternative programs. It is extremely important to ensure that alternative settings are meeting the needs of youth with disabilities by learning more about what characterizes effective alternative programs. The Alternative Schools Project aims to fill this knowledge gap through a grant from the Office of Special Education Programs at the U.S. Department of Education.

The study is looking at the extent to which three alternative day treatment programs meet commonly identified indicators of quality and the factors that help these programs achieve positive outcomes. Two important research questions guide the research: What are the characteristics of alternative programs and the administrators, teachers, parents, and students involved with them? How do the alternative programs effectively meet the needs of students? Various data are being collected through school archival records searches as well as interviews, focus groups, observations, and assessments. These methods are used to examine the background, school climate, structure, demographics, and cost of these programs.

Medicaid Support for Community-Based Health Services
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration funds this Task Order. The project has two major objectives: 1) Develop and disseminate scholarly policy papers that clarify the availability of Medicaid funding for community-based mental health services; and 2) Provide technical assistance to state Medicaid and Mental Health Agencies around these directives. The papers will be signed and released as official policy by the Administrator of the Commission on Medicare, Medicaid Services of the Department of Health and Services. The Project Director, Mary B. Tierney, MD, has extensive experience in Medicaid and other health care financing issues at both the local and national level. Partners include the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law and the National Mental Health Association.

Research Roundtable on Overrepresentation of Children of Color in Child Welfare (Research Roundtable)
The Research Roundtable was funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, from September 2001 to March 2003. The purpose of the Roundtable was to clarify through recent research, the reasons for the ethnic disproportionalities in Child Welfare, to make policy and practice recommendations to the Children’s Bureau, and to publish the research in a respected journal. AIR commissioned eight respected researchers to produce and present their papers at the national roundtable. The roundtable included over eighty researchers and child welfare professionals. The papers were published in the May/June 2003 special issue of Children and Youth Services Review. Volume 25, Number 5/6, 2003.

The Federal Interagency Coordinating Council (FICC)
The FICC funded by the U.S. Office of Special Education Programs was developed to minimize duplication of programs and activities across federal, state, and local agencies relating to infants and toddlers with disabilities. A number of federal programs and policies have been developed to address the needs of these children and families who are at risk or require services. AIR provides both technical and logistical support and coordination to the FICC and its four annual national conferences. AIR covers all meeting details, including planning and communication, travel coordination and reimbursement, production of all meeting minutes, and post meeting tasks.

Evaluation Data Coordination Project (EDCP)
The purpose of the EDCP is to identify and select common measures of constructs and reporting formats for nine selected DHHS evaluation projects; to facilitate and improve the quality of potential future secondary analyses and cross-project syntheses, thereby making more efficient and effective use of resources earmarked for evaluation; and to create options documents for selected domains and constructs. There are realistic constraints to accomplishing this task (e.g., some evaluation projects have already chosen their measures and had them cleared through OMB); however, this is the ideal goal and it will be accomplished to the greatest extent possible.

The National Center on Technology Innovation (NCTI)
The National Center on Technology Innovation (NCTI), funded by the U.S. Office of Special Education Programs since October 2001, seeks to provide researchers, developers, and vendors with information on technology innovation to advance the learning opportunities for children with disabilities. The Center provides resources, information, and networking opportunities to assist in the development of new tools and applications through the NCTI Web site ( http://www.nationaltechcenter.org), publications, conferences, information briefs, online forums, and webcasts.

The Technical Assistance Partnership for Child and Family Mental Health (Technical Assistance Partnership)
The Technical Assistance Partnership operates under a contract with the federal Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) to provide community-driven technical assistance to system of care communities funded by the Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services for Children and Their Families Program. The Technical Assistance Partnership is a partnership between the American Institutes for Research and the Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health. The goal of the Technical Assistance Partnership is to support local communities in their efforts to successfully develop and implement systems of care. One of the most important features of the Technical Assistance Partnership is that it models family-professional partnerships that are encouraged for local systems of care, with family members in key positions.

National Evaluation and Technical Assistance Center for the Education of Children and Youth Who are Neglected, Delinquent, or At-Risk (ND Center)
www.neglected-delinquent.org

This project serves as the U.S. Department of Education’s agent for providing evaluation and technical assistance to programs serving America’s neglected, delinquent, and at-risk students. The Center provides technical assistance and support for those serving ND youth including states and institutions. It disseminates information about effective programs and practices to improve the education and transitions of ND students. The Center also acts as a facilitator between different organizations, professions, and interest groups that work with ND youth. The goal is to improve academic outcomes for these youth and support their successful transition back to school.

A key mission of the Center is to synthesize current evidence-based research to help guide future research on issues regarding the education of ND youth. In order to help develop this evidence, the Center will create a uniform model for evaluating the effectiveness of State agency Subpart 1 programs.

Center for Effective Collaboration and Practice (CECP)
CECP is designed to support and promote a reoriented national preparedness to foster the development and adjustment of children with or at risk of developing emotional disturbance. AIR developed the CECP through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Education and its Office of Special Education Programs to improve services to children and youth with emotional and behavioral problems. CECP’s award-winning Web site contains the culmination of cutting edge information on issues related to juvenile justice, schools and special education, mental health, collaboration with families, school violence prevention and intervention, child welfare, and cultural competence. In addition, there are mini-Web sites for the dissemination of our work on functional behavioral assessment, prevention and early intervention, promising practices in children’s mental health, strength-based assessment, and wraparound planning.

National Center on Education, Disability, and Juvenile Justice (EDJJ)
EDJJ is a collaborative research, training, technical assistance, and dissemination program designed to develop more effective responses to the needs of youth with disabilities in the juvenile justice system (JJS) or those at risk for involvement with the JJS. EDJJ is jointly funded by the U.S. Department of Education, its Office of Special Education Programs, the U.S. Department of Justice, and its Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. EDJJ’s work focuses on the prevention, education and treatment, transition, advocacy, and policy issues unique to children and youth with disabilities who are at-risk or currently involved in the juvenile justice system.

The National Training and Technical Assistance Center for Drug Prevention and School Safety Program Coordinators http://www.k12coordinator.org
Established to support the efforts of Middle School and K-12 Coordinators, this Center offers a continuum of professional development activities and resources which reinforce and strengthen coordinators' abilities to plan, implement, and sustain effective prevention programming in schools and districts.

The Center is funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Safe & Drug-Free Schools (OSDFS) and is operated by AIR, in partnership with Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), Education Development Center (EDC), and National Association of School Psychologists (NASP).

The National Center offers a wide array of services including:

Core Training — a 5-day, face-to-face, training event designed to orient coordinators to the roles and responsibilities of their positions and to strengthen their leadership and planning skills.
Leadership Institute — a 2 ½ day training for experienced coordinators to further develop key competencies such as organizational development, group management, and systems change.
Online Events — a series of online continuing education events to strengthen prevention coordinators' abilities to plan, implement, and sustain effective prevention programming in their schools and districts.

National Center for Mental Health Promotion and Youth Violence Prevention http://www.promoteprevent.org
This Center is funded by the Center for Mental Health Service (CMHS, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The Center has a three-year mandate to assist over 160 Safe Schools/ Healthy Students, Youth Violence Prevention, and Targeted Capacity Expansion grantees and perspective applicants in using and sustaining evidence-based strategies for mental health promotion and violence prevention for underserved populations.

The Education Development Center (EDC) has joined with the AIR to create a team of professionals with experience in mental health, substance abuse and violence prevention, education, communication, and technology. Their staff will be complemented by the expertise of more than a dozen technical partners. Their services will be available to provide grantees with tailor-made training and consultation services to:

Develop and implement plans
Acquire knowledge of evidence-based interventions
Form and maintain coalitions, including families and consumers
Implement interventions that incorporate cultural competency
Conduct needs assessments, monitoring, and evaluation
Enhance peer-to-peer consultation and support
Identify strategies to sustain projects beyond federal funding period
Conduct social marketing and communications campaigns