A consultative study as a catalyst for improving mental health services for rural children and adolescents.

The consultative study is one model of academic involvement in public mental health services. However, the effects of consultation and how it acts as a catalyst for change have been poorly documented. The authors describe a consultative study in which a team from a academic training center examined the system of mental health and related human services for children and adolescents in a semirural county in western Pennsylvania.

State-university collaboration to enhance public psychiatric services in western Pennsylvania.

A collaboration established in 1974 between the Pennsylvania State Office of Mental Health and Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center provides a comprehensive program of continuing mental health education, skills development, and program consultation to state hospitals and publicly funded community programs in rural and semirural western Pennsylvania. The authors describe the development of the program and discuss its current organization and activities. In 1990-91 a total of 60 faculty and 150 staff members from the institute contributed more than 1,200 hours of direct programming.

Prevalence of behavior problems in three-year-old children living near Three Mile Island: a comparative analysis.

The Behavior Screening Questionnaire (BSQ) was used to determine whether 2 1/2-3 1/2 yr old children living near the TMI nuclear reactor were more disturbed than children living near another nuclear plant or near a fossil-fuel facility in Pennsylvania when assessed 2 1/2 yr later. The prevalence of behavior problems was 11%. Differences among the sites in overall rates and individual symptoms were small.