Join the Campaign

The American Academy of Childhood and Adolescent Psychiatry is sponsoring The Campaign for America's Kids , a $15 million fund raising initiative to support programs to address the epidemic of mental illnesses that affects over 15 million of our nation's youth today. Comprised of 7,000 child and adolescent psychiatrists, The Academy is the nation's leading authority in this field.

Dedicated to ensuring mental health for all children, the campaign funds will be used to build an Advocacy Institute for Child and Adolescent Mental Health. The Institute will emphasize education and the dissemination of information through three centers:

• The School Mental Health Service Center – to educate and provide tools for teachers and those associated with education, particularly those with a critical vantage point for early detection, prevention and encouragement of treatment for youngsters with psychiatric disorders;
  
  
• The Government Affairs Center – to persuade government officials in local, state and federal levels that they have a critical role to play in the fight against childhood mental illnesses and the promotion of research in this arena.
  
  
• The Public Information Center - to raise parental and overall awareness about child and adolescent mental health issues and to emphasize that, similar to other physical disorders and diseases, most mental illnesses are identifiable and treatable.

We at AACAP feel a moral responsibility to communicate as widely as possible that childhood and adolescent mental illnesses are real, pervasive, and treatable.

Our goal is to increase understanding and remove the stigma associated with mental illnesses in children and adolescents as well as to heighten awareness that these brain based illnesses, similar to other physical disorders and diseases, can be scientifically identified and successfully treated.

Public awareness and education about many diseases, such as cancer and AIDS, have transformed fear and misunderstanding into hope and optimism for treatments and cures.

In the past, when this country has been threatened by children suffering by diagnosable illnesses in epidemic proportions, e.g. measles and polio, we leapt into action with national campaigns that warned parents of the danger signs, informed the country of appropriate actions to stop the pain and suffering, and invested significantly in education, research and immunization. Again our nation's children are being threatened and it is time we work together to be sure something is done.

We invite you to share in this work, to support us in our overarching goal, and to make a real difference in the lives of children with emotional, developmental and mental disorders and the families who care for them. Join the Campaign.