Thomas Grisso points out that youth with mental disorders make up a significant subgroup of youth who appear in U.S. juvenile courts. And he notes that juvenile justice systems today are struggling to determine how best to respond to those youths' needs, both to safeguard their own welfare and to reduce re-offending and its consequences for the community. In this article, Grisso examines resear...

BACKGROUND Reducing child mortality and improving maternal health occupies a prominent space in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and it has been noted that some reductions have taken place, but not enough. If consumers know what and where services are available, they may be motivated to use them. This study therefore evaluated consumers' knowledge about available maternal and child heal...

ABORIGINAL COMMUNITY CONTROLLED health services (ACCHSs) across Australia are supported by predominantly non-Indigenous doctors. As of 2005, there were between eight and ten Indigenous doctors working in ACCHSs. For many non-Indigenous doctors, working in an Aboriginal health service has been a choice to do something different and to try to make a difference. One of us (K S P) moved to Townsvil...

Slow reduction in infant mortality rate in the last couple of decades is a major concern in India. State-level aggregate data from the National Family Health Survey 1992 and micro-level data on rural mothers (n=317) were used for examining the influence of female literacy on reduction of infant mortality through increased use of maternal and child health (MCH) services. Illiteracy of females wa...

This commentary argues that the Multiethnic Placement Act, designed to combat common cultural stereotypes, provides clear guidance to state child welfare agencies and the mental health professionals that serve them, eliminating any regular consideration of race in the foster and adoptive placement of children. Given recent enforcement action by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, ...

The development of trauma-informed child welfare systems (TICWSs) that advance individual agency practice to target transformation of the system as a whole has been conceptualized but not documented. A grassroots effort to build a TICWS with key participants (e.g., Department of Human Services, Community Mental Health, Family Court, schools) in nine Michigan communities provides a field tested ...

Extremely high turnover rates have plagued Public Child Welfare Services organizations historically and continue to do so currently. Turnover rates have ranged from 30-60% annually (Mor Barak, Nissly, & Levin, 2001) and from 46% to as high as 90% in a two-year period (Drake & Yadama, 1996). The most current national data reveals turnover rates between 15%22% among case managers and social worke...