ABSTRACT
Children and families are in need of better mental health services. This conclusion was forcefully drawn in the now classic report, Unclaimed Chil dren, published in the early 1980s (Knitzer, 1982). It is true today to an even greater degree. The best evidence presented suggests that about 8 million children and adolescents need some form of mental health services. The majority of these will not receive any psychological or psychiatric treat ment. Many of those who are treated in some form or setting will be undertreated, overtreated, or treated ineffectively. Consequently, the men tal health professions acknowledge that services to children are inade quate-children and their families are underserved (Day & Roberts, 1991; Knitzer, 1982, 1993; Knitzer, Steinberg, & Fleisch, 1990; Saxe, Cross, & Batchelor, 1986; Saxe, Cross, & Silverman, 1988). In the final report by the Office of Technology Assessment on Children's Mental Health, Saxe et al. (1986) concluded that there needs to be improved "description of the availability and use of children's mental health services . . . [and an] immediate need for improved delivery of mental health services for chil dren" (p. 10).
