A Framework for System Reform in Children’s Mental Health

Increasingly over the past 15 years, the concept and philosophy of a “system of care” has provided a guide and organizing framework for system reform in children’s mental health. As the field has begun to consider the action steps needed to improve children’s mental health services in today’s environment, much consideration also is being given to examining how the system of care concept has evolved and how it remains useful as a framework for reform. Though some have questioned the utility of the system of care approach and the place of systems of care in future children’s mental health reform, others have contended that misunderstandings of the system of care concept itself underlie some of these questions and that the concept and philosophy continue to provide a valuable framework for reform.