Child and family outreach services as an adjunct to child and adolescent mental health treatment.

Abstract

Child and Family Outreach Services have been an important adjunct to urban community child and adolescent mental health treatment. The Child and Family Outreach Services Program was developed as an extension of a child and adolescent outpatient and child partial hospitalization program to provide a comprehensive continuum of treatment. The Child and Family Outreach Program generalizes and links traditional therapeutic services to the patient's and family's environment through in-home, in-school, and community intervention. The latter treatment model enables the mental health service provider comprehensively to treat and effect positive change with high-risk patients and their families. Outreach service involvement has increased treatment compliance and reduced out-of-home placements.