Running head: SERVICES FOR CHILDREN WITH SEVERE EMOTIONAL
Services for Children with Severe
Emotional Disturbances
Elaine V. Vincent
University of West Florida
Abstract
The services that are available to children who are diagnosed with severe emotional disturbances are investigated. The services that are available to this vulnerable population are divided into two different categories: nonresidential services and residential services. Non-residential services are services that are provided to children with severe emotional disturbances and their families that do not entail a child being cared for outside of the home. Residential services require that the child is under supervision twenty-four hours a day. Problems with the delivery of these services, such as fragmented services and the lack of quality assessment of existing programs, is also described. The change to a more uniform delivery system of services through the systems of care theory is presented as a solution to the problems with service delivery to children with severe emotional disturbances and their families.
Services for Children with Severe
Emotional Disturbances
Children and adolescents with severe emotional disturbance, or SED, present a major dilemma to the agencies responsible for their care, including education, health, child welfare, mental health, and juvenile justice (Vance & Pumariega, 2001). Definitions of severe emotional disturbance vary from agency to agency adding to the problems associated with serving this vulnerable population. In the mental health field, SED generally refers to the presence of a psychiatric disorder accompanied by considerable functional impairment. The Center for Mental Health Services, as cited by Vance and Pumariega (2001), defines children with a severe emotional disturbance as persons from birth up to the age of 18, who currently have a diagnosable mental, behavioral, or emotional disorder of sufficient duration that meets the...