E & D Services looks to provide business plans for companies looking to give mental health service

Oct. 24, 2009 - PRLog -- It has been a crucial issue that most people have identified as an essential need but despite the recognized importance of mental health concerns among youth in the child welfare population; data suggest a significant gap between children who need services and children who receive services.

This in turn has prompted some private sector companies to step forward and try to answer this call, and E & D Services is hoping to assist them in their business plan development.

E & D hopes that this article aims to address this problem by focusing on the ways in which the system identifies-or fails to identify-children as needing mental health services.

There was an independent study recently done that reviews current guidelines, policies, and practices for mental health screening and assessment of youth in child welfare including available evidence-based screening instruments that have been evaluated in child welfare or other settings.

It is concluded in this study that the use of evidence-based screening and assessment instruments will improve the identification of children needing mental health services and offer the opportunity to provide appropriate care to children who are currently being overlooked.

Currently the child welfare system is responsible for ensuring the safety, permanency, and well-being of children and adolescents who have been maltreated. Types of maltreatment experienced by children in the child welfare system include physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, domestic violence, parental substance abuse, poverty, community violence, and numerous other insults.

Children with these experiences are clearly at high risk for the development of a wide range of mental health issues, if they are not already demonstrating symptoms on entry into the system. In addition, separation from family and other changes that result from having maltreatment reported and investigated may cause additional stress, which also increases the risk of mental health issues developing once a child is part of the system. Children entering the child welfare system should therefore be assessed for mental health service need, provided services accordingly, and reassessed periodically.

This according to the independent study is making mental health services a greatly needed service. In a struggling economy there is only so much our domestic based government has been able to effectively accomplish. In light of these efforts private companies (both non-profit and for profit corporations alike) are springing up to answer the call. Staff members at E & D are hopeful they can help some of these individuals along and stated their services would be available.

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E & D Services is a business plan designer that specialize in helping business owners develop sound business models for operational success. E & D Services' primary goal is to further the development of already existing businesses and present sound models