Emerging models

Abstract

In all these models, the potential of child psychiatrists and other mental health professionals in decreasing student barriers to learning is promising. While expanding the traditional client service model, child psychiatrists can serve as advocates for identifying student's unmet mental health needs, encourage schools to build capacity for effective responses, be vigilant for quality assurance, develop and initiate new programs that systematically respond to needs of the school community, and provide training opportunities that demystify the psychiatric concepts that can help administrators and teachers. Relatively few child psychiatrists are active in the school setting or have developed a presence in the national movement to provide mental health services in schools. In recognition of the fact that traditional models of psychiatric care such as outpatient clinics and hospital-based programs do not reach many children and adolescents, it is hoped that child psychiatrists will be more motivated to have a more active and rewarding presence in the school setting. Even with the variety of responses to the need for increasing mental health services to children, there are a lot of unanswered questions. With only 8000 child psychiatrists in the United States and 80,000 schools, it is clear that we need to be strategic about how best to utilize our resources. The big question is whether there are predictable and alterable characteristics, mechanisms, and interactive processes that enable high-risk students to attain educational and personal success, despite seemingly poor odds. Emerging models have the potential to begin answering this question.