Characteristics of Children and Adolescents with Serious Emotional Disturbance in Systems of Care. Part II

Abstract

This is the second in a series of investigations designed to study the characteristics of children and adolescents with serious emotional disturbance (SED) who are currently being served in various systems of care, ranging from community-based services to psychiatric hospitalization and residential placement. The sociodemographic, educational, psychological, and treatment history characteristics of children and adolescents who were provided with community-based services as an alternative to residential placement were examined. Of the 363 children and adolescents who were judged by community service providers to be at imminent risk of residential placement, complete sociodemographic data were available for only 228 (63%). These 228 children and adolescents were grouped according to their school-identified disability status at the time they were targeted to receive community-based services: (a) those identified as SED (54%); (b) those identified with other disabilities, such as mental retardation or learning disabilities (28%); and (c) those with no identified disabilities (18%). The data were analyzed for the total study sample—as well as for the three groups—on the following variables: age, gender, race, referral source, guardianship, living arrangements, special education status, psychotropic medication, criminal record, prior involvement with the service system, and history of residential placement. Significant differences among the three groups were found on a number of variables, including guardianship, medication, criminal record, prior involvement with the service system, and history of residential placement. Findings are discussed in terms of community-based service needs of children and adolescents with SED.

Use of Psychotropic Medications in Special Education Students with Serious Emotional Disturbance

“…The baseline 38% medication use in the current study is higher than previous findings for students with SED: 9-15% in students newly classified as SED (Mattison et al 1993) and 14-17% in students already in SED classrooms (Cullinan et al 1987;Greenbaum et al 1996). This percentage is more consistent with the percentage of usage found in recent studies of children defined by the mental health definition of serious emotional disturbance (also abbreviated SED and usually indicative of a child who is close to needing intensive services out of the home): 30-40% (Epstein et al 1995;Landrum et al 1995;Hallfors et al 1998;Silver et al 1992). This similar relationship may be due to the high percentages of the subjects in these studies who were also classified as special education SED, 45-90%.…”

Family Friendliness of Community-Based Services for Children and Adolescents with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders and Their Families

“…The sociodemographic data of the 79 children with EBD whose cases were presented at the FAPT meetings indicated that they are representative of children with EBD in general who have been receiving community-based services as mandated by the C S A in the Commonwealth of Virginia (Landrum, Singh, Nemil, Ellis, & Best, 1995). Furthermore, they are similar to children with EBD who are receiving communitybased services in other states (M. H. Epstein, Cullinan, Quinn, & Cumblad, 1994;Rosenblatt & Attkisson, 1992).…”

Troubled or Troubling? Characteristics of Youth Referred to a System of Care Without System-Level Referral Constraints

“…Other studies examined characteristics of nonLatino ethnic minorities. For example, 54% of youth involved in communitybased services in Virginia's system of care were Black (Landrum, Singh, Nemil, Ellis, & Best, 1995), and 40% of children and adolescents who received partial hospitalization and inpatient psychiatric services in a universityaffiliated program in Virginia were Black (Singh et al, 1994).…”