State Health Lawmakers' Digest: Psychotropic Drug Use among Children (Vol. 3, No. 3), Digging Deeper

DIGGING DEEPER

The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (www.aacap.org) offers "Facts for Families" briefs on numerous topics to help families understand developmental, behavioral, emotional and mental disorders affecting children and adolescents. Similarly, the National Mental Health Association (www.nmha.org) has a series of fact sheets relating to children, as well as state advocacy resources.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Service's Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has a wealth of information through its National Mental Health Information Center (http://www.mentalhealth.org/default.asp). The Center offers fact sheets on mental disorders, a series of best practice papers on systems of care that work for children, materials for children about their illness, and information for their parents. The Center also provides numerous weblinks to other government information sources and non-governmental organizations.

The University of South Florida's Research and Training Center for Children's Mental Health (http://rtckids.fmhi.usf.edu) produces reports and helps to disseminate the professional literature of others with comprehensive summaries of journal articles and news updates. The Center has also tracked the evolution of state-sponsored children's health insurance and managed care's affect on children with serious emotional disturbances.

Another University-based resource is Georgetown University's Center for Child and Human Development (http://www.georgetown.edu/research/gucdc/). Reports look at promising systems of care and cultural competence in children's mental health.

The Citizen's Commission on Human Rights (http://www.cchr.org) was founded by the Church of Scientology and presents an argument against the use of psychotropics by children.

BACK TO MAIN