Children's mental health: challenges for the nineties.

This article summarizes some of the progress made in serving children with emotional disorders and their families during the 1980s, and it provides an overview of the status of the children's mental health field as the decade ends. The article then proceeds to identify seven major challenges that the field faces as a new decade begins. These challenges relate to training and human resources development, funding for services, research, interagency collaboration, overall service system development, advocacy, and children at risk for developing serious emotional disorders.