22nd Annual Research Conference

Mark Your Calendars!

A System of Care for Children's Mental Health: Expanding the Research Base

The 22nd Annual Research Conference will be held March 1-4, 2009, at the Tampa Marriott Waterside

21st RTC Handouts and Proceedings

Handouts | Proceedings

Special News Reports

News feature by WMNF, Tampa Bay's Community Radio Station about the 21st Annual Research Conference. Originally broadcast in February of 2008. [Listen | Read Story]

About the conference

In February 1988, the Research and Training Center for Children’s Mental Health of the University of South Florida convened its first national conference on system of care research in children’s mental health in Tampa Florida. This year, for the 21st, Tampa was again host to a national network of nearly 700 researchers, policy-makers, family members, advocates, practitioners, administrators interested in the exchange of information about children’s mental health in general, and systems of care in particular.

Distinquished Lecturers

This year, we were honored to open the conference with a federal perspective from Dr. Terry Cline, Administrator of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Dr. Cline’s presentation was followed by our Gwen Iding Brogden Distinguished Lecture by Dr. Michael Quinn Patton. Dr. Patton, an outstanding leader in the field of evaluation, has broken new ground through his research and writings on social innovation and complexity theory, and his presentation challenged us to think in new ways about the role of evaluation in relation to social change in complex systems.

Evidence-based Practices in the Systems of Care Context: Elevating the Discussion

For day two of the conference, the morning featured two outstanding plenary panels that discussed the issue of integration of evidence-based practices and systems of care. Our panelists brought extensive and diverse experience, and offered great insights on how to achieve this integrative task, and best align the practice and systemic features so that the end product is better outcomes for the youth and families who we care about. Our panelists were Eric Bruns, Barbara Burns, Janice Cooper, Charles Glisson, Darcy Gruttadaro, and Scott Henggeler. Pdf versions of their presentation slides are now available, and the videos will be available in mid March.

About the agenda

The research conference agenda included 64 sessions packed with symposia, paper presentations, and topical discussions, special forums on data utilization, implementation research, and serving gay, lesbian and transgendered youth, and over 60 poster presentations. In addition, six intensive workshops addressed practical approaches for implementing effective systems of care from a range of perspectives. All presentations offered important research and evaluation methods and results in these areas.

  • Facilitating youth transition to adulthood and independence
  • Family-driven, youth-guided systems planning
  • Implementation of effective systems of care
  • Implementing evidence-based practices in the systems of care context
  • Creating culturally competent systems to reduce disparities
  • School-based services and the system of care
  • Innovative methodologies for research and evaluation of complex systems
  • Integrating evaluation and performance measurement
  • Implementing wrap-around services in systems of care
  • Role of public sector agencies in SOC
  • Designing, conducting, and disseminating research to maximize its impact
  • Addressing the Issue of Unregulated Residential Services: An Agenda for SOC Services and Research

The annual conference is hosted by the Research and Training Center for Children’s Mental Health in Tampa, Florida. The Center is jointly funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, U.S. Department of Education and the Center for Mental Health Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration under grant number H133B040024.