PERSONAL, FAMILY, AND SERVICE USE CHARACTERISTICS OF YOUNG-PEOPLE SERVED BY AN INTERAGENCY COMMUNITY-BASED SYSTEM OF CARE

In order to create a more functional system of care, agency administra tors, direct service providers, the young people served, their parents , and advocates worked together to assess local needs and existing ser vice features, and to plan required changes. This article presents dat a on some personal and family characteristics and patterns of service utilization of the young people served in this system of care. These d ata include the child's age, gender, race or ethnicity, learning chara cteristics, psychiatric status, and adjudications; parent marital stat us and employment, living arrangements for the child, and family histo ry of risk factors; and the child's history of services and placements . Some relationships within the present data and between the present d ata and those of other system-of-care descriptions are discussed.