Children’s Mental Health Services: The Right to Community-Based Care

Executive Summary

About 3.8 to 4.6 million children between the ages of nine and 17 have mental health needs. Evidence and experiences demonstrates that, with the right approaches and health services, youth with significant mental health concerns can and do thrive in family settings. This issue brief provides health advocates with the information and guidance to ensure state health officials understand their legal obligations and experiences in implementing home-based services, and with this information advocates will have a greater ability to judge the adequacy of current services, and tools to imagine a better functioning system.