title: Systems of care, featherless bipeds, and the measure of all things.
abstract: For more than 20 years, the system of care philosophy has comprised a central strategy of service reform in children's mental health at the federal, state, tribal, and local levels. System of care terminology has become widely used in many different service sectors but often without a shared understanding of what a system of care is. This manuscript, the feature article for this special issue of Evaluation and Program Planning, briefly traces the history of the system of care movement, discusses the more widely used definitions in the field of children's mental health, and offers an expanded version of the definition that takes into account the complex nature of systems of care. This manuscript was the product of a process used by the Case Studies of System Implementation research team to identify established system of care communities for inclusion in the research study. The purpose of this manuscript is to describe the process the research team engaged in while developing the revised definition and to open a public dialogue about how to characterize the essential properties of a system of care.
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Family Studies, Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute, College of Behavioral and Community Sciences, University of South Florida, 13301 Bruce B. Downs Blvd., MHC 2439, Tampa, FL 33612, USA. hodges@fmhi.usf.edu
authors.forename: Sharon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hodges
authors.forename: Kathleen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ferreira
authors.forename: Nathaniel
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Israel
authors.forename: Jessica
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mazza
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D016497:Adolescent Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D002648:Child; D002662:Child Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D019058:Community Networks / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006285:Health Planning / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006801:Humans; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D009937:Organizational Objectives; D010686:Philosophy, Medical; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D012922:Social Change