The anthrax incidents following the 9/11 terrorist attacks put the spotlight on the nation's public health agencies, placing it under an unprecedented scrutiny that added new dimensions to the complex issues considered in this report. The Future of the Public's Health in the 21st Century reaffirms the vision of Healthy People 2010, and outlines a systems approach to assuring the nation's health in practice, research, and policy. This approach focuses on joining the unique resources and perspectives of diverse sectors and entities and challenges these groups to work in a concerted, strategic way to promote and protect the public's health. Focusing on diverse partnerships as the framework for public health, the book discusses: The need for a shift from an individual to a population-based approach in practice, research, policy, and community engagement. The status of the governmental public health infrastructure and what needs to be improved, including its interface with the health care delivery system. The roles nongovernment actors, such as academia, business, local communities and the media can play in creating a healthy nation. Providing an accessible analysis, this book will be important to public health policy-makers and practitioners, business and community leaders, health advocates, educators and journalists.

Test-based psychological assessment has been significantly affected by the health care revolution in the United States during the past two decades. Despite new limitations on psychological services across the board and psychological testing in particular, it continues to offer a rapid and efficient method of identifying problems, planning and monitoring a course of treatment, and assessing the outcomes of interventions. This thoroughly revised and greatly expanded third edition of a classic reference, now three volumes, constitutes an invaluable resource for practitioners who in a managed care era need to focus their testing not on the general goals of personality assessment, symptom identification, and diagnosis so often presented to them as students and trainees, but on specific questions: What course of treatment should this person receive? How is it going? Was it effective? New chapters describe new tests and models and new concerns such as ethical aspects of outcomes assessment. Volume I reviews general issues and recommendations concerning the use of psychological testing for screening for psychological disturbances, planning and monitoring appropriate interventions, and the assessing outcomes, and offers specific guidelines for selecting instruments. It also considers more specific issues such as the analysis of group and individual patient data, the selection and implementation of outcomes instrumentation, and the ethics of gathering and using outcomes data. Volume II discusses psychological measures developed for use with younger children and adolescents that can be used for the purposes outlined in Volume I; Volume III, those developed for use with adults. Drawing on the knowledge and experience of a diverse group of leading experts--test developers, researchers, clinicians and others, the third edition of The Use of Psychological Testing for Treatment Planning and Outcomes Assessment provides vital assistance to all clinicians, and to their trainees and graduate students.

Children living in poverty are more likely to have mental health problems, and their conditions are more likely to be severe. Of the approximately 1.3 million children who were recipients of Supplemental Security Income (SSI) disability benefits in 2013, about 50% were disabled primarily due to a mental disorder. An increase in the number of children who are recipients of SSI benefits due to mental disorders has been observed through several decades of the program beginning in 1985 and continuing through 2010. Nevertheless, less than 1% of children in the United States are recipients of SSI disability benefits for a mental disorder. At the request of the Social Security Administration, Mental Disorders and Disability Among Low-Income Children compares national trends in the number of children with mental disorders with the trends in the number of children receiving benefits from the SSI program, and describes the possible factors that may contribute to any differences between the two groups. This report provides an overview of the current status of the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders, and the levels of impairment in the U.S. population under age 18. The report focuses on 6 mental disorders, chosen due to their prevalence and the severity of disability attributed to those disorders within the SSI disability program: attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder/conduct disorder, autism spectrum disorder, intellectual disability, learning disabilities, and mood disorders. While this report is not a comprehensive discussion of these disorders, Mental Disorders and Disability Among Low-Income Children provides the best currently available information regarding demographics, diagnosis, treatment, and expectations for the disorder time course - both the natural course and under treatment.