ABOUT US

History

During his tenure as the Associate Director of Child and Adolescent Research at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), Dr. Peter S. Jensen realized that, despite remarkable advances in the scientific knowledge of brain development, mental health problems, and their treatments, healthcare professionals were not consistently or effectively applying this knowledge in diagnosing and treating common childhood mental disorders. As a result, the gaps between scientific knowledge and the practical application of effective mental health services to children and adolescents were growing wider.

Sadly, unmet mental health needs are as high today as they were 20 years ago. 75% of children still do not get critical mental health care, with the highest unmet need among minority youth. Factors contributing to this disturbing lack of care include:

• Schools not equipped to identify and manage these problems
• A lack of training and support for most pediatricians, family doctors, and other primary care health providers
• Parental fears of being blamed for their child’s emotional and/or behavioral problems
• Managed care “gate keeping” restrictions
• Limitations on insurance coverage for mental health treatment

After leaving NIMH in 2000, Dr. Jensen came to Columbia University to serve as the Founding Director of the Center for the Advancement of Children's Mental Health (CACMH), with the goal of developing the necessary methods for closing the gap between science and practice.  He wanted to get research off the shelf and into the hands of people who could make a difference in children’s emotional and behavioral well-being.  While he was at Columbia, the inspiration and methods for REACH were born -- not to create new research, but to gather together leading scientists, mental health experts, agencies, primary care providers, parents and schools, in order to reach consensus the best available scientific findings that might be used to help children, followed by the implementation, dissemination, and evaluation of these methods -- "putting science to work." 

Over time, the urgent need for an effective and independent resource dedicated solely to this purpose led to the formation of the REscource for Advancing Children's Health (REACH), with its dedicated mission to take the lastest scientific findings from universities across the country and to rapidly disseminate it to families and helping professionals that need it now, rather than 20 years hence.

First incorporated as a non-profit organization in 2006, REACH was formally launched in July, 2007.