Protecting the Children: Strategies for Optimizing Emotional and Behavioral Development

Learn how to prevent emotional and behavioral disorders in children and adolescents. Protecting the Children provides readers with clear and informative descriptions of ten demonstrably effective strategies for promoting positive mental health among children. For planners and providers of children's mental health services, it offers an array of alternatives for responding to the needs of high-risk children prior to the onset of problems. The carefully designed and meticulously researched programs--which can be adopted in communities around the nation--represent examples of the benefits to be achieved by attacking factors that place individuals at risk for disorders rather than the disorders themselves. The programs described include: Innovative educational practices to assist the intellectual development of children from poor and undereducated families Pregnancy and infancy nurse home visitations for families at social risk because of the mother's young age, single-parent status, or poverty--in order to improve prenatal health habits, care of the child, and the psychosocial context of the family A culture-sensitive program designed to help low-income Mexican-American families enhance their children's school performance and reduce the incidence of their behavior problems Strategies developed to enhance self-esteem, provide emotional support, and assist children in understanding their parents'divorce A broad-based substance abuse prevention program that emphasizes self-improvement and the development of personal and social skillsThe volume also provides evidence in support of those who argue that the nation's policymakers must appreciate the value of preventive interventions in serving the needs of children and adolescents. Prevention oriented health care professionals and service providers, policymakers involved in planning services for low income and high risk populations, community psychologists, and clinical-child psychologists who focus on the needs of high-risk populations will find this provocative book is a necessary addition to their professional libraries.