title: A continuum of mental health care for children and adolescents.
abstract: As an alternative to the confusing patchwork that often characterizes child and adolescent mental health care, the mental health program of a children's social welfare agency offers a continuum of inpatient and outpatient services on one campus. The program operates a 36-bed psychiatric hospital, a 38-bed residential treatment program, a partial hospital for ten children and adolescents, and a large outpatient service, and it can draw on the agency's foster care, emergency shelter, and home-based therapy services. Treatment in all the services is provided by multidisciplinary treatment teams, which have primary responsibility for coordinating a patient's transfer with other elements of the continuum and for initiating a patient's discharge. A case study illustrates some of the practical considerations that influence treatment decisions in the continuum.
authors.affiliation: Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas.
authors.forename: R S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: McKelvey
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D003156:Community Mental Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003266:Continuity of Patient Care / Q000639:trends*; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000639:trends*; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000639:trends; D012946:Social Welfare / Q000639:trends; D013406:Suicide, Attempted / Q000523:psychology; D013781:Texas