NCJ Number
111090
Journal
Stanford Law Review Volume: 40 Issue: 3 Dated: (February 1988) Pages: 773-838
Date Published
1988
Length
66 pages
Annotation
The rising rates of psychiatric admission of children and adolescents reflect an increasing use of hospitalization to manage a population for whom such intervention is inappropriate: 'troublesome' youth who do not have severe mental disorders.
Abstract
Factors that have stimulated an increasing demand for institutional services for troublesome youth are increasing divorce rates and affected children's maladjustment and recent legal reforms that have made the juvenile justice system relatively inaccessible to families desperate for help in dealing with their children's problem behaviors. A reform proposal recommends fundamental reform in private and governmental insurance coverage, reversing the current preference for inpatient as opposed to community-based interventions. It also suggests development of a network of effective and accessible community-based services for families in need, enactment and enforcement of State policies requiring scrutiny of the appropriateness of juvenile admissions to psychiatric facilities, and State monitoring of the growth and activities of private psychiatric facilities. 352 footnotes.