Patterns of Youth Mental Health Care in Public Service Systems (U01)

Principal Investigator

Funding

  • NIMH
    • 8/1996 - 7/2001; $8,049,380

Project Description

Overview

The main purpose of the "Patterns of Care" (POC) study is to examine the pathways into and through public services sectors of care and short-term outcomes for youths with or at high risk for significant mental health problems.

Along with examination of pathways to services, the study also:

  1. Identifies patterns of single and multiple sector use and the types and prevalence of mental health and social dysfunction problems.
  2. Examines the relationship of types and severity of mental and behavioral problems to patterns of services over time.
  3. Examines the relationship to risk and protective factors to mental health and behavioral problems and patterns of services used over time.

Study Design

The POC study employed a two-year longitudinal study design. Participants in the POC study consist of 1715 youths (ages 6-18 years of age) who were selected by a simple random sample of open cases in five San Diego County public service sectors (mental health, alcohol and drug, public school programs for the seriously emotionally disturbed (SED), child welfare and juvenile justice) during the last six months of County fiscal year 1996-1997.

Status

  • Wave I in-person interviews began October 1997 and ended in January 1999. 1,642 interviews were completed with parents or caregivers and 1,510 with youth ages 6 to 18. Data was gathered on a total of 1,715 youth.
  • At 6-month intervals, telephone follow up interviews were conducted. At each of the three intervals, 6-months; 12-months and 18-months we had a 90% completion rate.
  • Wave II of in-person interviewing began November 1999 and were completed in May 2001. Data has been gathered so far on 92% of the youth from baseline. To date 2,888 interviews have been completed. Eighty-five percent of those interviews constitute complete dyads (both the adult and youth were interviewed).

NIMH Conference on Research Approaches to Early Treatment and Prevention of Mental Disorders for Minority Children and Adolescents (July 2001)