Intensive mental health services for children with serious emotional disturbances through a school-based, community-oriented program.

Treating children with severe, early onset emotional and behavioral disturbances remains a daunting task for mental health and education systems. This article describes key principles, features, and outcomes for the school-based Intensive Mental Health Program (IMHP), a program designed specifically to provide comprehensive evidence-based, ecologically sensitive, and individualized services for this difficult-to-treat population. Although the IMHP is a relatively new model, preliminary studies of outcomes and treatment processes give initial evidence that most children improve notably in their role performance, behavior, and emotional adjustment over the course of treatment. With increasing demands for effective, affordable school-based mental health services, the IMHP offers a developing but promising prototype for services geared to meet the unique needs of children with complex disturbances of emotions and behavior.

Innovative treatment for children with serious emotional disturbance: preliminary outcomes for a school-based intensive mental health program.

This article describes the development, implementation, and preliminary evaluation of a school-based Intensive Mental Health Program (IMHP) for 50 children (42 boys, 8 girls) with severe, early-onset, serious emotional disturbances (SED). Eighty-four percent of the children showed clinically significant improvement in overall functioning as measured by the Child and Adolescent Functional Assessment Scale (CAFAS). Child functioning at home and school, behavior toward others, regulation of moods and emotions, self-harm, and problems in thinking improved significantly. Results provide initial support for the IMHP as a promising approach to serving the needs of children with SED.