The 26th Annual Children’s Mental Health Research and Policy Conference

Since 1988, Department of Child and Family Studies at the University of South Florida has been a leader in promoting the expansion of the research base essential to improved service systems for children and youth with mental health challenges and their families. Our first national conference, also initiated in 1988, was on system of care research primarily to enhance the capacity of the children’s mental health field to systematically study important issues. This conference has continued each year, bringing together more than 500 researchers, evaluators, policy-makers, administrators, parents, and advocates to share dialogue about important issues such as health, education and welfare, share new knowledge, and identify challenges that remain for the field.

2013 Conference Topics Include:

• Research on system and organizational level structures and processes that impact effectiveness
• Research within and across systems, policy and practice
• Research regarding family, youth, and young adult roles in behavioral health services
• Linking primary care and behavioral health
• Community-based approaches to reducing behavioral health disparities
• Integration of policy and practice across sectors (such as health/behavioral health, child welfare, and schools and juvenile justice)
• Implementing evidence-based practices
• Translational/Implementation Science
• Innovative approaches to research, evaluation and performance measurement in complex settings
• Early childhood behavioral health
• Substance abuse and dual diagnosis treatment among youth and young adults
• Community-based participatory research with diverse populations
• Innovative approaches for older youth and young adults

• Policy Change
• Health Reform
• Payment models and new opportunities for child behavioral health with Affordable Care Act
• Best practices in engagement and enrollment strategies for expanded health insurance opportunities (expanded Medicaid/state health insurance exchanges) for uninsured, diverse racial ethnic populations
• Role of behavioral health providers in health homes – and how this is connected with the system of care approach
• Behavioral Health prevention strategies that can be implemented and evaluated at state and local levels
• Psychotropic medication of children as it relates to behavioral health, child welfare, primary care, and schools
• Accountability and outcome tracking in Child Welfare
• Diverting youth from juvenile justice