cover image How to Find Help for a Troubled Kid: A Parent's Guide to Programs and Services for Adolescents

How to Find Help for a Troubled Kid: A Parent's Guide to Programs and Services for Adolescents

John Reaves. Henry Holt & Company, $19.95 (376pp) ISBN 978-0-8050-0885-2

For parents who recognize that their children need help, this sourcebook brings together a wide range of services and support systems available to adolescents troubled enough to require intervention from outside the family. The alternatives explored start with the least drastic, such as tutoring, and progress to hospital treatment. Checklists of symptoms, state directories for referrals, and explanations of diagnoses and treatments provided in clearcut language guide parents through the maze of private and public resources. In addition to the wealth of information about services, the authors address parents in a tone that is upbeat and supportive, encouraging them to become resources for others. Reaves has been director of a child-care program in New Orleans; Austin is a psychologist in Mississippi. (Apr.)