An engaging treatise on the state of our children's mental health system, explaining why needed improvements are non-existent or inconsistent, and describing two strategies to fuel evolution of the system for better service to our youngsters.
Lyons provides a fresh and thought-provoking understanding of the children's public mental health system, as well as the need to foster its evolution and improvement. He presents the history of child mental health systems, including the U.S. system's roots and the early 19th-century case of the Wild Boy of Aveyron, which demonstrated the potentially therapeutic effects of environment. He shows us why modern leaders and presidents have issued calls for improvements to the U.S. child mental health system, and what barriers have slowed or even halted this evolution. Such barriers, Lyons explains, can be removed with community development and better clinical outcomes management.
In addition to providing information for parents, family members, and advocates for improving the lives of children needing mental health care, this work will also interest clinicians, policy makers and students in social work, clinical psychiatry, public health and public policy.
Series Foreword
Acknowledgments
The History of Children's Public Mental Health Services
Problems with the Current System: Tensions and Syndromes
Developing the Vision: Finding the Balance
Building Healthy Communities
The Measurement and Management of Outcomes in a Total Clinical Outcomes Management Approach
The Role of Existing Programs and Services in an Evolving System
Creating Solutions Across the System of Care
Appendix
Literature Cited
Reviews
This readable, authoritative overview is written with an insider's voice and viewpoint. In seven chapters, Lyons provides a historical overview of children's mental health services and a critique of the current system; he discusses building healthy communities, measuring outcomes, and current systems of care....[t]he volume has value for a broad audience, and an appendix and other scholarly apparatus serve the book well. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers.—Choice
[T]imely and progressive....[t]his practical and well-researched analysis is highly recommended for mental health policy collections and large public libraries.—Library Journal
Endorsements
...[P]rovides the reader with a wonderful, at times witty, historical and contemporary overview of the complex web of mental health systems that children must navigate for care.... Dr. Lyons proposes Total Clinical Outcome Management (TCOM), an innovative approach whereby children are supported and understood by a system that is responsible, accountable, effective and clinically grounded. This book is an essential read for all who dare to be agents of change in developing and sustaining a system of care that fosters and strengthens the children and youth it serves.—Lise Bisnaire,^LClinical Director, Inpatient Psychiatric and Mental Health Services^LChildren's Hospital of Eastern Ontario
I recommend ^IRedressing the Emperor^R to policy-makers, funders and children's service providers. It de-constructs the child serving system of care for children and youth and identifies a process, Total Clinical Outcomes Management, by which the inherent tensions and syndromes in the system can be managed or eliminated. It is a clear and common sense approach badly needed in our field if we are to achieve our goal--more effective management of care for children and families.—Mary Beth Rauktis LSW,^LDirector of Research and Evaluation^LPressley Ridge
In this important book, John Lyons persuasively argues how psychological assessment can be closely tied to treatment utility. Adoption of his recommendations will lead to substantial advances in helping to provide treatment for children in the public mental health system. This book also provides a powerful commentary on the status of our public mental health system.—Dr. Howard N. Garb,^L Chief, Psychological Research Service^L Department of the Air Force, Lackland AFB
A renowned authority on mental health services research, John Lyons not only diagnoses the problems plaguing public mental health programs for children, but provides insightful guidance on how to solve them. Redressing the Emperor is essential reading for all professionals concerned with the psychological welfare of our children.—Richard J. McNally, Ph.D.,^LProfessor of Psychology^LHarvard University^L Author of ^IRemembering Trauma^R
