ABSTRACT
This issue of Children’s Services: Social Policy, Research, and Practice consists of five articles profiling different aspects of the national evaluation of the Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services for Children and Their Families Program, sponsored by the Center for Mental Health Services within the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Over the last 8 years, this program has provided grants to 67 communities across the United States to develop community-based systems of care for children with serious emotional disturbance and their families. A comprehensive, multilevel evaluation has been conducted that has provided information to local grantee communities and the federal government on the implementation and effectiveness of systems of care. Many individuals across the country have been involved in this effort, including the children and families participating in the evaluation, evaluation and program staff in the funded communities, advocacy groups, other collaborators in universities and other private and public organizations, personnel from the Center for Mental Health Services, and national evaluation staff members. The collaborative efforts of all of these groups under the leadership of the Child, Adolescent and Family Branch at the Center for Mental Health Services have made this large-scale program evaluation a reality. The articles included in this issue touch on a range of questions that the evaluation is designed to address and provide more general information on the system-of-care approach to addressing children’s mental health problems.
