Behavioral Health Resources/Links for Families
Family Ties Resource Directory
This is a comprehensive listing of resources for families of children with disabilities, special needs, or chronic health issues.
Along with listings of other special health needs, the directory includes listings and descriptions of national, statewide, and local agencies and organizations serving children with mental health issues.
AAP Depression and Suicide web page
This site contains brochures, fact sheets, and quick facts regarding depression and suicide.
“Facts for Families” is a great information resource regarding child and adolescent mental health published by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. It is available online for free and consists of concise 1-2 page printer-friendly handouts on a variety of topics. Topics include normal development, such as "Starting School" (#82); contemporary issues affecting children, such as "Talking to Children about Terrorism and War" (#87); and information about psychiatric disease, such as "Asperger's Disorder" (#69).
School psychiatry web site: Mood and Anxiety Disorders InstThis web site contains information on mental health issues by diagnosis. You may look up your child’s diagnosis and read a description on what this diagnosis looks like at home, at school, and at the doctor’s office. Each diagnosis section describes the treatment of the specific disorder. Diagnoses included are anxiety, separation anxiety disorder, social phobia, panic disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, depression, bipolar disorder, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and autism spectrum disorders. The website contains extensive listings of links and books.
The MADI Resource Center: Mood and Anxiety
Disorders Institute Mood and Anxiety
Disorders web site (MADI),
Massachusetts General Hospital
www.moodandanxiety.org
This web site is the sister site to the school psychiatry web site. It contains information about common mental health conditions and includes a download of a detailed resource guide that provides extensive listings of family support programs and services, treatment providers, and advocacy assistance. The site also contains information about mood and anxiety disorders in young people, free online viewing of researchers and clinicians from Massachusetts General Hospital speaking on a wide range of mental health and wellness topics, and news about community events in the Boston area.
The Parents' How-to Guide to Children's Mental Health Services in Massachusetts
This comprehensive how-to guide for parents published by the Boston Bar Association and supported by Children's Hospital explains when and how to navigate the mental health system in Massachusetts. Topics include problems your child may have, steps for getting help, paying for services, navigating mental health networks, services in your child’s school, and other state programs for mental health.
Project Interface This web site is for an initiative to improve the integration of mental health services within school systems and their greater community in Massachusetts. It contains a wide variety of information on mental health topics for the benefit of parents, educators, and mental health professionals, including lists of local mental health resources in Boston, Newton, Waltham, and Wellesley.
www.AdolescentWellness.org
This is a web site promoting depression prevention resources developed by McLean Hospital and Children's Hospital Boston. In the 'When a child has symptoms of depression' section of the Parent Resources page is a guide titled, Parent Guide To A Child's Psychiatric Hospitalization and other resources.
The New England Index provides free disability-specific information for people with disabilities residing in Massachusetts.
In Northeast Massachusetts, visit in person
Family Resource Center
Behavioral Health Library
NSMC North Shore Children’s Hospital
57 Highland Ave.
Salem, MA 01970
Telephone: 978-354-2660
Web site: www.nsmcfamilyresourcecenter.org
The Family Resource Center at North Shore Children’s Hospital provides comprehensive educational information and resource support for families of children and adolescents with behavioral and mental health issues. The library contains a collection of books and articles on a wide variety of mental health diagnoses and mental health issues. They also have an assortment of children’s books dealing with behavioral health issues. The center is open on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. by appointment and is open to the public from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. The resource center is staffed by clinical specialists for patient education. If a family has just received a mental health diagnosis for a family member and would like to speak to a person regarding how to find information about that diagnosis, this is an ideal place to get started. They also operate a web site at www.nsmcfamilyresourcecenter.org and hold forums on various mental health issues.