PsychiatricRehabilitationJournal Copyright2007TrusteesofBostonUniversity 2007,Volume31,No.1,38–48 DOI:10.2975/31.1.2007.38.48 Article 38 Recovery and Resilience in Children’s Mental Health: Views from the Field ▼ Barbara J. Friesen PortlandStateUniversity Acknowledgements The preparation of this article was supported with funding from The National Institute on Disabilityand Rehabilitation Research, United States Department of Education, and the Center for Mental Health Services, Substance Abuse and MentalHealth Services Administration (NIDRR grant number H133B040038). The content of this article does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the funding agencies. Thisarticleexploresthequestions,“Whatdoesrecoverymeaninthecontextof children’smentalhealth?”“Howdorecoveryandresiliencefitwiththesystemof carevaluesthatunderpincurrenttransformationeffortsinthechildren’smental healthfield?”And,“Whatimplicationsflowfromtheanswerstothesequestions?” Theauthordetailsaprocessdesignedtogathertheperspectivesoffamilymem- bers,serviceproviders,administrators,researchers,andadvocates,summarizes theresultsofthesediscussions,andconcludeswithrecommendationsfornext steps. Keywords: recovery, resilience, children’s mental health, and system of care Despitemanysimilaritiesinoverall goalsandphilosophy,thechildand adultmentalhealthsystemshavede- velopeddifferentconceptualframe- worksandlanguage,alongwith independentservicesystems.Thisre- flectsrealandimportantdifferences betweentheneedsanddevelopmental trajectoriesofchildrenandadults,and servicesdesignedtosupportthem.The developmentofthetwosystemshas alsobeenshapedbycompetitionfor resources.Sincethe1980s,whenpub- licmentalhealthservicesinthestates wereoverhauledandreorganizedto betteraddresstheneedsofadultswith severeandpersistentmentalhealth problems,children’sadvocateshave workedhardtobuildorrebuildservic- esforchildrenwithmentalhealth needsandtheirfamilies.Thus,the separatesystemsforchildrenand adultsreflectbothappropriatespecial- izationandhistoricallyrooteddiver- gence. Aprimeexampleoftheseseparate pathsistheadoptionofasystemof careframeworkinchildren’smental health,andthedevelopmentofthere- coverymovementamongadultswith mentalillness.Systemofcareprinci- ples(Stroul&Friedman,1986;1988) haveprovidedaframeworkforbuilding aneffectiveandappropriateresponse tochildrenwithmentalhealthprob- lemsandtheirfamiliesforthelast20 years,alongwithmorerecentlyadopt- edprinciplesandpracticestrategies relatedtopromotingresilience(Masten &Powell,2003).Conceptsrelatedto