title: Building a model to understand youth service access: the gateway provider model.
abstract: Enhancing the functioning of parents, teachers, juvenile justice authorities, and other health and mental heal professionals who direct children and adolescents to services is a major mental health services concern. The Gateway Provider Model is an elaborated testable subset of the Network-Episode Model (NEM; B. A. Pescosolido & C. A. Boyer, 1999) that synthesizes it with Decision (D. H. Gustafson, et al., 1999) and organizational theory (C. Glisson, 2002; C. Glisson & L. James, 1992, 2002). The Gateway Provider Model focuses on central influences that affect youth's access to treatment, i.e., the individual who first identifies a problem and sends a youth to treatment (the "gateway provider"); and the need those individuals have for information on youth problems and relevant potential resources. Preliminary studies by the authors and other applicable studies (D. Carise & O. Gurel, 2003) show that providers' perception of need, and their knowledge of resources, and their environment are related to the decision to offer or refer to services, supporting key aspects of the Model.
authors.affiliation: George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri 63130, USA. arstiff@wustl.edu
authors.forename: Arlene Rubin
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Stiffman
authors.forename: Bernice
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Pescosolido
authors.forename: Leopoldo J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Cabassa
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D016497:Adolescent Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002648:Child; D002662:Child Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003662:Decision Theory; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006302:Health Services Research; D006801:Humans; D007373:Interinstitutional Relations; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017146:Models, Organizational; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D014481:United States