COMPARATIVE OUTCOMES OF EMOTIONALLY-DISTURBED CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS IN A SYSTEM OF SERVICES AND USUAL CARE

Objective: This study compared sis-month functional and symptom outcom es of children and adolescents with serious emotional disturbance who received set-vices in an exemplary system of care with outcomes of chi ldren who received traditional care. The system of care offers a compr ehensive and coordinated network of mental health and other necessary sell ices. Methods: The study used a randomized longitudinal experimen tal design. Baseline data on symptoms, functioning, and family charact eristics were collected from 350 families selected from among those wh o sought services for children from community agencies in Stark County , Ohio, The families were randomly assigned to either the experimental group, which received services from the system of care, or the contro l group, which received usual care in the community, sis-month outcome measures of children's symptoms and functioning were compared for the two groups, Results: Although access to care and the amount of care r eceived increased under the system of care, no differences in clinical or functional outcomes were found between the group served in the sys tem of care and the group who received usual care, Conclusions: The ef fects of systems of care are primarily limited to system-level outcome s such as access to and cost of care and do not appear to affect clini cal outcomes such as functioning and symptoms.