Redressing the Emperor: Improving Our Children's Public Mental Health System

Anyone who has had the pleasure of attending training or conferences with Dr. John Lyons knows that not only is he intelligent and perceptive he is also accessible and entertaining. In his book, Redressing the Emperor, Dr. Lyons brings his experience, insight, and wit to taking a hard look at the children's mental health system. Dr. Lyons is a professor at Northwestern University and has spent his career researching and improving both children's and adult mental health systems. To distill the message of this book, Dr. Lyons processes the dynamic tensions present in children's services and systems. It is this tension and the views and philosophies of practitioners, participants and advocates that shape children's services and progress. The book challenges the reader to examine the personal and systemic beliefs interwoven through the system and to utilize and shape these beliefs to improve services for children. Dr. Lyons provides a useful history of the children's mental health system as well as the challenges that face us today. This book is certainly informative, but more than that it is actually a great read. I strongly recommend this book for practitioners, participants and advocates in the children's mental health system -- as well as those in child welfare, education, and juvenile justice.