What a difference family-driven makes: stories of success and lessons learned.

Community Psychology's emphasis on citizen participation aligns with the nationwide children's mental health family movement and is clearly evident in communities that have made sustainable system changes. The national family movement has long advocated for the meaningful engagement of families and youth who are the focus population of the federal Children's Mental Health Initiative. Little rigorous research about the experience of families in leadership positions or of their impact on systems of care has been done.

One size does not fit all: taking diversity, culture and context seriously.

Evidence suggests that the current mental health system is failing in the provision of quality mental health care for diverse children and families. This paper discusses one critical domain missing to improve care: serious attention given to diversity, culture, and context. It discusses what we mean by understanding culture and context at the individual, family, organizational, and societal level.

The role of infrastructure in the transformation of child-adolescent mental health systems.

There is a widespread recognition that the mental health system is not effective in meeting the needs of the children, adolescents, and families who seek its services. In response to this recognition, researchers and policy makers are developing and implementing strategies to transform mental health systems. This paper suggests that transformational interventions should not proceed faster than our understanding of the complexities of a mental health system.

Family support in children's mental health: a review and synthesis.

A comprehensive review of structured family support programs in children's mental health was conducted in collaboration with leadership from key national family organizations. The goals were to identify typologies of family support services for which evaluation data existed and identify research gaps. Over 200 programs were examined; 50 met criteria for inclusion.