WHEN CLINICIANS TREAT A PARent for depression, they may not realize they have an opportunity to help prevent the development of mental health problems in that person’s children. But a growing body of evidence suggests that such an opportunity indeed exists. A new set of recommendations aims to educate clinicians about evidencebased mental health prevention interventions targeting children and adolescents (Beardslee WR et al. Psychiatric Serv. 2011;62[3]:247-254). It also provides practical tips on how clinicians can implement these interventions in their practice or in their community. The recommendations are based on the results of a 2009 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, Preventing Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Disorders Among Young People: Progress and Possibilities (http://tinyurl.com/25kwppp), which provided an in-depth overview of the evidence base supporting preventive mental health interventions. Such interventions may promote children’s healthy emotional development in communities or schools. They also may target individuals who are at risk or who have begun to exhibit symptoms. “If we wait for someone to walk in the door [of our clinic], we’ve already missed a primary prevention opportunity,” said Peter L. Chien, MD, a coauthor of the recommendations and staff psychiatrist at the Community Mental Health Council in Chicago, which offers case management and psychiatric services to individuals living on the city’s south side. Chien explained that by the time most individuals present for mental health care, they are already experiencing dysfunction in their lives. “We need to reach beyond our offices, and think from a public heath perspective how do we promote this,” he said. Chien explained that there are simple steps mental health clinicians can take to implement preventive strategies in their practice. For example, they should note when patients are parents and provide support and referral to resources that promote positive, noncritical parenting. They can also set up groups for children who have begun experiencing symptoms. Chien and his coauthors, including William R. Beardslee, MD, encourage clinicians to advocate for evidencebased prevention programs in schools, health care facilities, and other community settings. The authors also urge mental health clinicians to promote public policies that reduce common risk factors for mental illness, such as poverty and violence. For example, the authors note in their report that children and adolescents living in poverty may face crowded, unsafe, or stressful living conditions; endure frequent moves and school changes; lack adequate health care and food; and attend subpar schools. Mark T. Greenberg, PhD, Bennett Chair of Prevention Research at Pennsylvania State University in University Park, who was not involved in the creation of the guidelines, said the recommendations and the IOM report represent a coming-of-age for the field of mental health prevention, and that the recommendations help to outline the challenges ahead. “We now have a set of programs that can reduce pain and suffering, are costeffective, and can prevent disease,” Greenberg said. “That’s very exciting, but we don’t have infrastructure for implementing them in the community,” he noted. To move forward, Greenberg said, it will be necessary to create a preventive health infrastructure that can organize individuals across sectors, including mental health, social services, education, religious groups, and parent organizations. Such a community prevention system could help to identify the specific needs of the community, select programs that target those needs, and secure long-term funding. “Mental health clinicians can help represent that sector and help to select the correct programs,” he said. Chien and his colleagues note that some steps to creating such an infrastructure have begun as part of health care reform. For example, the health care reform act created the National Prevention, Health Promotion, and Public Health Council to help support prevention efforts at the national level,