History and Purpose (Back to top)
The Children's Mental Health Resource Center opened in March 2011. The Center was founded by a coalition of organizations and individuals in the Greater Richmond community who came together with the goal of making it easier to navigate the complex system of mental health care for children.
"We want to be the GPS for children's mental health," said Bob Cohen, PhD, director of the Virginia Treatment Center for Children and one of the Center's founders. "One in five children experience a mental health problem that impacts their daily life, but it's very difficult to find and obtain appropriate mental health services in our system. We are trying to change that. We want to provide a one-stop place for people to learn about children's mental health and get connected to services."
The Center's programs include:
- This website with information on childhood disorders, available treatments, and links to resources
- An on-site library with educational materials in both English and Spanish, and a workstation for doing guided research on the internet
- Family Navigators, a family-to-family peer support program in the initial stages of development
- A pilot project that offers Referral Assistance services to families referred to the Center through a group of participating pediatric primary care practices in the City of Richmond
The coalition that established the Center includes public and private mental health care providers, major family advocacy groups, and parents of children who have received mental health services. The group began meeting in 2009 to plan and develop the Resource Center in response to a lack of local resources for both families of children with mental health needs and child-serving professionals.
Support for the Center comes from grants, private donations and in-kind assistance from coalition and community partners. Administrative oversight is provided by the Virginia Treatment Center for Children (VTCC) in the Department of Psychiatry at Virginia Commonwealth University.
The Resource Center is located at 1506 Willow Lawn Drive, Suite 205, in Richmond, Virginia, near The Shops at Willow Lawn.
To see a list of Coalition Partners, click here.
Steering Committee (Back to top)
A Steering Committee and Executive Team provide overall guidance for the Center's operation. Administrative oversight is provided by the Virginia Treatment Center for Children (VTCC) in the VCU Department of Psychiatry.
Committee members
Robert Cohen, PhD, Director, Virginia Treatment Center for Children (Executive Team)
Bela Sood, MD, Chair, VCU Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and Medical Director, Virginia Treatment Center for Children
Beth Rafferty, LCSW, former Director of Mental Health Services, Richmond Behavioral Health Authority (Executive Team)
Jay Ziehl, Executive Vice President/Chief Operating Officer, UMFS (Executive Team)
Patricia Harris, NCC, LPC, President, Family Focus, Inc. (Executive Team)
Thomas Leahy, President, Beacon Tree Foundation
Vicki Hardy-Murrell, Director, Virginia Federation of Families, and Resource Coordinator, Family to Family Parent Resource Center, Medical Home Plus
Nicole Pries, LCSW, CTS, Director of Programs, ChildSavers (Executive Team)
Emily Jiancristoforo, Executive Director, Medical Home Plus
Liz Pearce, MEd, Director of Parent Engagement for the Children's Museum of Richmond, and former Executive Director of Commonwealth Parenting Center
Tanya Gonzalez, Manager, Richmond Hispanic Liaison Office
Mira Signer, Executive Director, NAMI Virginia
Margaret Nimmo Crowe, Senior Policy Analyst, Voices for Virginia’s Children
Julie Linker, PhD, Associate Director, Commonwealth Institute for Child and Family Studies, Virginia Treatment Center for Children
Jesselle Christenson, Parent (Executive Team)
Rebecca China, Coordinator, CSA, City of Richmond
Resource Center staff (Back to top)
Julie Linker, PhD, Program Director
Julie directs the Resource Center's programs, including Referral Assistance and Family Support/Education. She is an assistant professor in the VCU Department of Psychiatry, and serves as Associate Director of the Commonwealth Institute for Child and Family Studies at the Virginia Treatment Center for Children (VTCC).
Email: julie@mentalhealth4kids.org
Allison Ventura, PhD, Clinical Assessment Specialist
Alli provides clinical assessment and referral assistance to youth and families who participate in the Referral Assistance program. She also provides outpatient psychotherapy to individual children and adolescents at the Virginia Treatment Center for Children (VTCC).
Email: alli@mentalhealth4kids.org
Date Reviewed: May 25, 2012