4 RAPS SHEET n OCTOBER 2022 Blamed and Ashamed:1 PSU’s role in national reform efforts to support families whose children have serious mental health conditions PAST TENSE: Looking back at PSU’s early history For many years, children and youth with mental health conditions were neglected in federal and local policy and in the allocation of funds. Their families were generally excluded from decision making and services because of outdated theories about the causes of mental illness that assumed that families had contributed to their children’s problems. Because their children didn’t get needed services and support, parents and other caregivers encountered many financial, legal, scheduling, and emotional obstacles. A major leap forward occurred in 1984, when Congress funded a national program, the Child and Adolescent Service System Program (CASSP), designed to improve services for children and youth with serious mental health conditions. Most of these federal funds went directly to states and communities, but a portion of this money was allocated for research, evaluation, and sorely needed training/workforce development. Some of these funds supported a Research and Training Center for Children’s Mental Health at the University of South Florida, and a Research and Training Center on Family Support and Children’s Mental Health (RTC) at Portland State University, beginning with a five-year grant (1984) which extended for 25 years until 2009, when federal priorities shifted. Although the federal CASSP Program did not directly address possible contributions that families could make to system change, family input into grant preparation and service reform efforts was added as a grant requirement in Year 2. The work of the PSU Research and Training Center on Family Support and Children’s Mental Health (RTC) included activities and accomplishments conducted in partnership with family support organizations, federal partners, and researchers from other universities and community programs: •Planned and conducted regional conferences entitled “Families as Allies” focused on improving communication and relationships between families and mental health, child welfare, education, and other service providers. Other meetings gave families, youth, service providers, and researchers a chance to learn from one another and share the results of innovations in service and research. •Along with the National Federation of Families for Children’s Mental health, provided technical assistance and evaluation to a nationwide network of Family Support Organizations across the U.S. Federal support for family support organizations that served entire states, working along with local, community-based organizations of family members, began in 1988 with five small grants to existing family support programs and expanded to 44 states in 2004. In 2021, 29 statewide family-run programs received federal grants to provide family support, information, and training. The PSU Research and Training Center was recognized by Elizabeth Sweet, public health adviser, U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), during her presentation to a national audience in August 2021: “Portland [State University RTC] has been a partner from the very start. No one has been involved in this effort longer than Portland State.” •Contributed to the knowledge base about children’s mental health, and especially, the experiences, observations, and needs of families. Especially striking was a lack of financing for community-based and residential services, along with negative and blaming attitudes of some mental health professionals, teachers, child welfare workers, and others. Lack of access to appropriate services for their children sometimes resulted in parents having to reduce their employment to care for their high-needs children, give up custody of their children to access needed services, and/or declare bankruptcy because of debts incurred while paying for services. Not surprisingly, because the purpose of the Research and Training Center at PSU was to promote change in established systems, it was not without its critics. The RTC was able to carry on this important work because of continuous support from the PSU administration, including the president, provost, director of Graduate Studies and Research, and others. These contributions include providing financial assistance so that the RTC could hire graduate research assistants as a part of its research and educational mission. For further information, contact any of the authors of this brief: Eileen Brennan (eileen@pdx.edu), Barbara Friesen (friesenb@pdx.edu), and Nancy Koroloff (koroloff@pdx.edu). 1 Blamed and Ashamed (2001). Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health, Alexandria, Virginia.
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