Abstract

Who Is to Care for Them?

Establishment of the new Joint Commission on the Mental Health of Children has quickened the hopes of many that the U.S. has finally turned its eyes toward the suffering millions of its children. The new commission represents the unified efforts of many professional organizations and voluntary agencies. It came into being as a result of federal legislation. It is financed mostly by federal funds and, like most Great Society programs and their by-products, contains within it both the potential for vigorous advocacy and action and the temptation to pointless posturing and the sterile repetition of discredited wisdom. The real task confronting the commission goes far beyond the execution of a grand research project. The article summarizes some of the pertinent facts about present patterns of care of emotionally disturbed children.