Enhancing Mental Health Services to Children with Autism

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This project represents the first step in a formal collaborative, interdisciplinary research program at the University of California, Davis Health System (UCDHS) between the Medical Investigation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders (M.I.N.D.) Institute and the Center for Health and Technology (CHT). The project will review obstacles and develop strategies and guidelines for optimizing the effectiveness of telehealth technologies (clinical telemedicine, distance learning, internet communication and information distribution) in the delivery of high quality, empirically supported, well coordinated mental health services for children with autism and their families in rural communities. The project will develop an interdisciplinary network or "M.I.N.D. Bank" of faculty scholars from such areas as anthropology, medical sociology, special education and adult learning, public relations and marketing, political science, medical ethics and law, child psychiatry, child psychology, communication sciences and technology, and autism treatment. A Community Advisory Board (CAB) of stakeholders, including representatives from community and state mental health departments, developmental services organizations, special education, and parent organizations, will advise the M.I.N.D. Bank throughout the guideline development process. The aims of the proposed project are to: 1. Form an interdisciplinary faculty M.I.N.D. Bank of academic scholars and a Community Advisory Board (CAB) of stakeholders, who will engage in an interactive, iterative process to identify the potential advantages and barriers to the use of telehealth technologies in supporting best practices for children with autism; 2. Review and integrate disciplinary perspectives to produce a set of interdisciplinary guidelines regarding best practices for using telehealth to enhance empirically supported interventions to rural children with autism that will take into account cultural and ethical challenges; 3. Design and write research proposals to investigate the efficacy of the newly developed interdisciplinary telehealth guidelines to enhance delivery of mental health practices for children with autism in rural communities.