The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) joins SAMHSA in supporting Children's Mental Health Awareness Day, part of Mental Health Month 2006, a nationwide campaign to increase the public’s awareness and understanding of mental illnesses.
For Immediate Release
May 8, 2006
Contact:
Denise Espie, Director, Development and Communications, ext. 120, despie@aacap.org
Erin Baker, Communication Manager, ext. 119, ebaker@aacap.org
The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) joins the The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) Center for Mental Health Services in supporting Children's Mental Health Awareness Day, part of Mental Health Month 2006, a nationwide campaign to increase the public’s awareness and understanding of mental illnesses.
Awareness of children and adolescents' mental illnesses can promote early identification and treatment. Early diagnosis and treatment is strongly correlated with greater academic success, improved stability in relationships, and better health, overall.
Research supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has found that half of all lifetime cases of mental illness begin by age 14, and that despite effective treatments, there are long delays between the first appearance of symptoms and when people seek and receive help. Untreated mental disorders can lead to more severe, more difficult to treat, and co-occurring mental illnesses.
The goal of National Children’s Mental Health Day is to raise awareness of children’s mental health issues and to increase children and adolescents' access to sustained, quality, mental health care. The lack of appropriately trained mental health providers poses one of the greatest barriers to access. To address this, the AACAP supports the Child Health Care Crisis Relief Act, H.R. 1106/S.537, legislation that will help alleviate the national shortage of child and adolescent psychiatrists and other children’s mental health professionals by creating educational incentives to encourage recruitment into these fields.
The AACAP is proud to join SAMSHA, allied children's mental health associations, and local communities in supporting resilience, recovery, and greater access to mental health care for the fifteen million American children and adolscents living with mental illnesses.
AACAP has a number of online resources, including its Facts for Families, about what's normal, what's not, and when to seek help, accessible via its web site at www.aacap.org.
Representing over 7,500 child and adolescent psychiatrists nationwide, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) is the leading authority on children’s mental health. AACAP members actively research, diagnose, and treat psychiatric disorders affecting children, adolescents, and their families.
The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) is the leading authority on children’s mental health. AACAP members actively research, diagnose, and treat psychiatric disorders affecting children, adolescents, and their families.
Our Facts for Families, available free of charge on the AACAP website, provide concise and up-to-date information on a wide array of issues relating to children’s mental health. Written in a simple, straightforward manner, these 88 one-page fact sheets are valuable to anyone raising or working with children. In addition, the AACAP routinely refers the media to expert spokespeople on child and adolescent issues, and sponsors The Campaign for America’s Kids – an initiative designed to fund an Advocacy Institute for Child and Adolescent Mental Health, with the goal of mental health for all children.
AACAP Mission: The Mission of the AACAP is the promotion of mentally healthy children, adolescents and families through research, training, advocacy, prevention, comprehensive diagnosis and treatment, peer support and collaboration.
