Improving the Human Services Delivery System for At-Risk Children and Families.

In recent years, demand has increased for the development and implementation of a better overall human service delivery system for the United State's at-risk children and their families. Critics condemn the current system as being fragmented, too narrowly focused, beset with bureaucratic red tape and harmful restrictive regulations, difficult to access, and lacking in both fiscal and programming accountability. This paper highlights the major findings of selected recent national reports and studies involving the current and projected status of children and families in the United States. Identified are the major problems and obstacles that impede the effectiveness and efficiency of the current national human service delivery system. General strategies of how these problems can be overcome are discussed, as well as the role the nation's schools can play in human service delivery. It is argued that traditional concepts of schooling must change in order to accomplish this objective. Suggestions are made as to specific ways in which psychologists can contribute to the development and implementation of a more effective human service delivery system. (RJM)