Youth in the mental health void: wraparound is one solution

Mental health treatment works-if you can gain access to it. For many U.S. children with mental disorders, treatment is so inaccessible that parents must terminate their custodial rights so their children can receive psychiatric care. Use of Safe Haven laws, originally intended to prevent abandonment of newborns, are now being used to provide basic mental health care to youth. The closing of psychiatric services during the past decade has contributed to this crisis. Yet, one solution, wraparound systems of care, holds tremendous promise for providing community-based, comprehensive, and cost-effective care. Psychiatric nurses should support wraparound services as the standard of care for children and their families as health care reform is initiated.