May 5th is Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is helping communities increase access to behavioral health services and supports for children, youth, and young adults who experience mental or substance use disorders and their families. Here are some resources from the NIDILRR community and elsewhere to use as you explore the importance of children’s mental health services and how you can improve access in your community.

• Two NIDILRR-funded Rehabilitation Research and Training Centers (RRTCs) focus on supporting youth and young adults with mental health disorders. The RRTC on Pathways to Promising Futures and the RRTC on Learning and Working During the Transition to Adulthood both support these young people during the critical transition from school to work and full participation in their communities. Visit their websites for videos, guides, and briefs you can use to support a young person as they learn and grow.
• The RRTC on Community Participation of Individuals with Psychiatric Disabilities (TU Collaborative) focuses part of their work on college students with mental health conditions. They also have several guides for communities looking to welcome people with psychiatric disabilities including communities of faith.
• Check out this Focal Point journal on early intervention in children’s mental health from the RRTC on Family Support and Children’s Mental Health (1999-2004) .
• We recently highlighted a report from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network on supporting children with intellectual and developmental disabilities who experience trauma.
• We ran several searches in our REHABDATA database for research and resources on children and youth, using mental health and psychiatric disabilities as separate search terms. While there is considerable overlap, take a look at the searches to see how these concepts may differ.
  • NIDILRR research on psychiatric disabilities AND (children OR youth) (159 records)
  • NIDILRR research on mental health AND (children OR youth) (394 records)
  • Other research on psychiatric disabilities AND (children OR youth) (162 records)
  • Other research on mental health AND (children OR youth) (489 records)

How are you observing Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day? Tag your posts #HeroesOfHope to recognize leaders in providing mental health supports for children and youth!