National Children's Mental
Health Awareness Day

Several national mental health organizations banded together this spring to create National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day, May 8.  The National Mental Health Association (NMHA), National Association of Social Workers (NASW) and the Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health created the day to promote children's mental health.

The day was marked by a congressional briefing in Washington, DC, that included a presentation by Charles Wilson, executive director of the Chadwick Center for Children and Families at Children's Hospital-San Diego. Other speakers included Charles Curie, administrator, federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration; Cynthia Wainscott, acting president and CEO of NMHA; Sandra Spencer, executive director for the National Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health; TJ Curtis, youth advocate; and Lorrin Gehring.

National Children's Mental Health Awareness Day partners seek to strengthen and promote

further awareness in schools and communities nationwide, as well as to reduce dropout rates and educational shortfalls, substance abuse, involvement with the juvenile justice system and suicide.

"We are joining forces to better meet the needs of our most vulnerable children and their families," said Wainscott. "Mental health disorders are widely prevalent among our children. One in five youth in America may have a mental health problem; and at least one in 10 may have a serious mental disturbance. Of those, only a third receive any treatment at all, adequate or not."

"More than 20 percent of youth aged 12 to 17 received treatment or counseling for emotional or behavioral problems in 2003," says Elizabeth Clark, executive director of NASW.

For more information on National Children's Mental Health Awareness Day visit the NMHA website.

NCCTS Presents at CWLA Symposium

The Child Welfare League of America held its Juvenile Justice Division’s 2006 National Symposium May 31-June 2 in San Francisco, where Susan Ko and Chris Siegfried from the National Center presented on “Trauma Among Children and Adolescents in Juvenile Justice and Residential Settings.”  The CWLA division focuses on the intersection of the child welfare and juvenile justice systems and efforts to integrate care for youth.

Research studies show that up to 92% of incarcerated youth have experienced one or more traumatic events.  Rates of posttraumatic stress disorder in this population run three to four times those of youth in community settings.

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