EAST PROVIDENCE – Bradley Hospital and the R.I. Department of Health have teamed up to create a one-stop resource for parents who have questions about children’s mental health issues or need guidance on how to navigate the mental health care system.
The Rhode Island Parents’ Guide to Children’s Mental Health was created with financial support from Hasbro Inc. and is available online at www.ChildrensMentalHealthGuideRI.org. The print version of the 224-page guide is being distributed to family practitioners and pediatricians, community health centers, advocacy organizations, schools and libraries.
The guide – produced with the help of the Hasbro Children’s Fund – was released earlier this month in conjunction with Rhode Island Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day and the national observance of Mental Health Month.
It is a comprehensive “how to” for all parents, from those who simply need information about common children’s mental health disorders, such as depression; to those whose child has been diagnosed and are looking for advocacy and support groups.
It also aims to help parents understand the mental health care system by mapping the system’s various components, public and private, and showing how they connect to one another.
According to a recent study in the journal Pediatrics, nearly one in five children has a mental health issue, but resources have long been known to fall short of the need. According to the Surgeon General’s 2001 Conference on Children’s Mental Health, less than 20 percent of the estimated 14 million U.S. children and adolescents who need treatment receive it.
“We know that early invention is key to better outcomes, but many parents often don’t know where to turn when they think their child may have a mental illness,” Daniel J. Wall, president and CEO of Bradley Hospital, said in a news release. “It is our hope that this guide will help remove some of the barriers to accessing children’s mental health services so that all families in Rhode Island can obtain the care they need for their children.”
The guide also provides information about warning signs and symptoms of mental health issues; definitions, symptoms and evaluation and treatment options of common mental health diagnoses; and descriptions of different types of mental health care providers, organizations, programs and services available to families.
More than 40 child and adolescent mental health professionals, advocates, educators and parents from around the state contributed to the guide.
Bradley Hospital is a member of the nonprofit Lifespan health care system, along with The Miriam, Newport and Rhode Island and Hasbro Children’s hospitals. To learn more, visit www.lifespan.org.
Hasbro Children’s Fund – the philanthropic arm of Pawtucket-based Hasbro Inc. (NYSE: HAS) – includes the giving formerly done by the Hasbro Children’s Foundation and the Hasbro Charitable Trust. Additional information is available at www.hasbro.org.
For news and information from the R.I. Department of Health, visit www.health.ri.gov.
