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Mental health and substance abuse services for adolescents: Clinical and service system issues

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Abstract

This paper addresses changes in the prevalence, type, and severity of problems being presented by adolescents, and the familial, social, and cultural supports and context for adolescent behavior. Also described are the types of clinical training, financing, service system, and research supports that must be addressed if the field is to adequately meet the needs of adolescents with serious and persistent problems.

This paper seeks to identify critical clinical and service system issues needing to be addressed if mental health and substance abuse services are to effectively meet the needs of adolescents and their families. It is one of four papers commissioned by the Task Force on Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services for Adolescents of the American College of Mental Health Administrators.

The paper will not only identify important issues but, in a concluding section, will offer some general recommendations for addressing them. The paper is not intended to be a thorough and scholarly review of the current state of knowledge in the field but rather a selective highlighting of topics in order to provoke further discussion.

The issues identified are based on the projection of developments with regard to professional practice. They also take into consideration general social and demographic trends, and the impact that these trends are likely to have both on the type of clinical needs and prevalence of problems in the future.

The paper will focus both on clinical and service system issues because of their close interrelationship. It will also address the public, private not-for-profit, and private for-profit sectors, and the relationship between them in the belief that each sector has a vital role to play in meeting the mental health and substance abuse needs of adolescents.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research and Training Center for Children's Mental Health, Dept. of Child and Family Studies, Florida Mental Health Institute, Univ. of South Florida, 13301 i Bruce B. Downs Blvd., 33612, Tampa, FL

    Robert M. Friedman Ph.D.

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  1. Robert M. Friedman Ph.D.
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Friedman, R.M. Mental health and substance abuse services for adolescents: Clinical and service system issues. Adm Policy Ment Health 19, 159–178 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00707441

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