Dr. Lenore B. Behar

A biographical sketch

Dr. Behar ( center ) with her family

Lenore Behar received her undergraduate degree in 1959 and doctoral degree in 1963 in clinical psychology from Duke University. Lenore Behar completed postdoctoral work at Duke University and then worked at the Community Guidance Center of Bexar County, San Antonio, Texas, before taking a faculty position in 1965 in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

In 1973, Lenore Behar assumed the position of Chief of Child Mental Health Services in the state office of the Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Substance Abuse Services. The major responsibilities of this position were to plan, develop, monitor, advocate for and provide technical assistance and training to the child mental health services in the 40 area mental health programs serving 100 counties of North Carolina. Other responsibilities of this office were to manage resources, provide leadership for program development and financing of programs, ensure quality services to children and their families and to foster coordination of child mental health services with all other child serving agencies within the public and private sectors. Since the late 1970's, the provision of child mental health services in North Carolina has been recognized among the most outstanding of the 50 states, having progressed to a level of high quality services integrated with other agencies, and approaching a full continuum of care for its children. Lenore Behar had a key role in the Willie M. lawsuit in North Carolina, both in negotiating the settlement agreement and designing and initiating service system changes. Although her position with the State of North Carolina broadened considerably since 1973, Lenore Behar continued to be responsible for services to children with mental health problems and their families, with the title of Chief of Child and Family Services.

In August 2000, Lenore Behar assumed a new role with the Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Substance Abuse Services as the first Director of Child Research and Program Development. Lenore Behar carried out the responsibilities of this position in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University. In September 2001, Lenore Behar left her position with the State of North Carolina and became a full-time faculty member at Duke until July 2002. Her major responsibility at Duke was to serve as Associate Director of the National Center for Child Traumatic Stress. This center provides the leadership and coordination for the thrity-five treatment/service research and development sites and the practice sites across the country, which are federally funded through the Donald J. Cohen Child Traumatic Stress Initiative. Lenore Behar has worked as a research associate at the Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute at the University of South Florida. Lenore Behar is currently the director of Child and Family Program Strategies, an organization dedicated to providing consultation on systems development and systems change. Lenore Behar is a policy consultant to the Alisos Institute in Santa Barbara California. Her more current work has involved technical assistance and training to projects in California and Mississsippi and evaluation of projects in Massachussetts.

Lenore Behar has served as a member of the Task Panel on Children, Adolescents and Families of the President's Commission on Mental Health (President Carter, 1977-78) and on many national advisory boards. Lenore Behar has also served as a consultant to 22 states in planning and organizing of child mental health services and has served as an expert in litigation in four states. Lenore Behar has served as a consultant to the National Institute of Mental Health and the Center for Mental Health Services on several initiatives and as consultant to the Florida Mental Health Institute's National Training and Research Center for Seriously Emotionally Disturbed Children. Lenore Behar has been on the Advisory Board of the Technical Assistance Center for the Evaluation of Children’s Mental Health Systems, Boston, Massachusetts.

In addition to her work as a consultant in program development, Lenore Behar has also served as a consultant in litigation regarding services to children in five states, West Virginia, New Jersey, Maryland, Arizona and Hawaii. From 1994-2000, Lenore Behar served as a member of the Technical Assistance Panel appointed by the federal court to assist the State of Hawaii implement a settlement agreement to improve mental health and special education services for children.

Lenore Behar is past chair of the State Mental Health Representatives for Children and Youth and has held offices in two sections of the American Psychological Association. Lenore Behar chaired the 1985 review committee of the Office of Technology Assessment's Study of Child Mental Health Services. Her more recent professional presentations and publications in professional journals and books primarily address the issues of the delivery of mental health services to children and their families. Lenore Behar has served on the editorial boards of four professional journals and on an advisory board to the Rosalynn Carter Institute at the Univeristy of Georgia. Lenore Behar is a member of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry/Child Welfare League of America Committee on the Mental Health Needs of Children in Foster Care and a member of the Child Welfare league/Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Summit on Children in Foster Care.

Lenore Behar received the Secretary's Award for Excellence as an outstanding employee in the North Carolina Department of Human Resources in 1992. In 1995, Lenore Behar received an award from the Washington Business Group on Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Mental Health Services for Youth Program for her leadership in the field of children’s mental health. In 1995, Lenore Behar also received an award of appreciation for her work to develop services for children with emotional disturbances from the North Carolina Association of County Directors of Social Services. Lenore Behar is the 1995 recipient of the Nicholas Hobbs Award from the American Psychological Association. In 1996, Lenore Behar received a lifetime achievement award from the National Research and Training Center at the Florida Mental Health Institute. In 1998, Lenore Behar received an award from the North Carolina Mental Health Association for Leadership in Child Mental Health Services

One of her major accomplishments has been to develop a national model of child mental health services through a contract with the Department of Defense and the State of North Carolina (MH/DD/SAS). That contract, begun in 1989, funded a five-year demonstration project to provide all needed mental health services to the 48,000 children at Fort Bragg. This is the largest and most comprehensive program in the country and the demonstration is providing significant information about mental health needs and mental health care. The impact has been to demonstrate that community mental health services can substitute adequately for hospital services when the community services are comprehensive and available.

Lenore Behar worked with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in 1988 to help them develop a national initiative in child mental health. The Foundation has now given $24 million to fund 8 states over 4 years to develop model programs, particularly focusing on avoiding out of home placements. A second focus of these programs has been to help state governments restructure the financing of child mental health services. Lenore Behar initiated Carolina Alternatives, North Carolina’ Medicaid managed care program for children; additionally, Lenore Behar worked with the Annie E. Casey Foundation on the design of another national initiative that expands upon the concept used in the Robert Wood Johnson Programs and that is to develop child mental health services that are neighborhood based and represent the best cross agency efforts. Lenore Behar has worked within North Carolina to implement these same concepts that represent the major trends in child mental health services.

In addition to her responsibilities in the Division of MH/DD/SAS, Lenore Behar also has served as the Coordinator for the North Carolina-Israel Partnership for the Department of Health and Human Services. In this capacity, Lenore Behar has worked in partnership with colleagues in North Carolina and in Israel to develop an International Stress Prevention Center at Tel Hai College, which focuses on assisting communities worldwide to prepare and handle the trauma of natural and man-made disasters. Lenore Behar has developed a child mental health demonstration with the Ministry of Health and has completed a comparative study of child health delivery systems. Lenore Behar has organized an annual international conference on children’s issues, which focuses on comparative strategies for dealing with children’s aggressive behaviors in school, school violence, and the coordination of services to children and families. Lenore Behar was a member of International Advisory Committee for the 6 th International Conference on Grief and Bereavement in Contemporary Society, held in Jerusalem in July 2000.

Lenore Behar is a certified facilitator with Concept Systems, Inc. Lenore Behar is also one of the founding members of A START (the Alliance for Safe, Therapeutic, and Appropriate Use of Residential Treatment, an organization sponsored by the Bazelon Institute and the University of South Florida, Louis de la Parte Mental Health Institute and dedicated to addressing issues of unlicensed, unrelgulated residential services for children.

Lenore Behar served on the Raleigh-Durham Airport Authority Board from 1988-1990, representing Durham County and from 1992-1998, representing the City of Durham and the Duke Unviersity Development Council, from 1993-95.

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	A biographical sketch Dr. Behar ( center ) with her family Lenore Behar received her undergraduate degree in 1959 and doctoral degree in 1963 in clinical psychology from Duke University. Lenore Behar completed postdoctoral work at Duke University and then worked at the Community Guidance Center of Bexar County, San Antonio, Texas, before taking a faculty position in 1965 in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 1973, Lenore Behar assumed the position of Chief of Child Mental Health Services in the state office of the Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Substance Abuse Services. The major responsibilities of this position were to plan, develop, monitor, advocate for and provide technical assistance and training to the child mental health services in the 40 area mental health programs serving 100 counties of North Carolina. Other responsibilities of this office were to manage resources, provide leadership for program development and financing of programs, ensure quality services to children and their families and to foster coordination of child mental health services with all other child serving agencies within the public and private sectors. Since the late 1970's, the provision of child mental health services in North Carolina has been recognized among the most outstanding of the 50 states, having progressed to a level of high quality services integrated with other agencies, and approaching a full continuum of care for its children. Lenore Behar had a key role in the Willie M. lawsuit in North Carolina, both in negotiating the settlement agreement and designing and initiating service system changes. Although her position with the State of North Carolina broadened considerably since 1973, Lenore Behar continued to be responsible for services to children with mental health problems and their families, with the title of Chief of Child and Family Services. In August 2000, Lenore Behar assumed a new role with the Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Substance Abuse Services as the first Director of Child Research and Program Development. Lenore Behar carried out the responsibilities of this position in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University. In September 2001, Lenore Behar left her position with the State of North Carolina and became a full-time faculty member at Duke until July 2002. Her major responsibility at Duke was to serve as Associate Director of the National Center for Child Traumatic Stress. This center provides the leadership and coordination for the thrity-five treatment/service research and development sites and the practice sites across the country, which are federally funded through the Donald J. Cohen Child Traumatic Stress Initiative. Lenore Behar has worked as a research associate at the Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute at the University of South Florida. Lenore Behar is currently the director of Child and Family Program Strategies, an organization dedicated to providing consultation on systems development and systems change. Lenore Behar is a policy consultant to the Alisos Institute in Santa Barbara California. Her more current work has involved technical assistance and training to projects in California and Mississsippi and evaluation of projects in Massachussetts. Lenore Behar has served as a member of the Task Panel on Children, Adolescents and Families of the President's Commission on Mental Health (President Carter, 1977-78) and on many national advisory boards. Lenore Behar has also served as a consultant to 22 states in planning and organizing of child mental health services and has served as an expert in litigation in four states. Lenore Behar has served as a consultant to the National Institute of Mental Health and the Center for Mental Health Services on several initiatives and as consultant to the Florida Mental Health Institute's National Training and Research Center for Seriously Emotionally Disturbed Children. Lenore Behar has been on the Advisory Board of the Technical Assistance Center for the Evaluation of Children’s Mental Health Systems, Boston, Massachusetts. In addition to her work as a consultant in program development, Lenore Behar has also served as a consultant in litigation regarding services to children in five states, West Virginia, New Jersey, Maryland, Arizona and Hawaii. From 1994-2000, Lenore Behar served as a member of the Technical Assistance Panel appointed by the federal court to assist the State of Hawaii implement a settlement agreement to improve mental health and special education services for children. Lenore Behar is past chair of the State Mental Health Representatives for Children and Youth and has held offices in two sections of the American Psychological Association. Lenore Behar chaired the 1985 review committee of the Office of Technology Assessment's Study of Child Mental Health Services. Her more recent professional presentations and publications in professional journals and books primarily address the issues of the delivery of mental health services to children and their families. Lenore Behar has served on the editorial boards of four professional journals and on an advisory board to the Rosalynn Carter Institute at the Univeristy of Georgia. Lenore Behar is a member of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry/Child Welfare League of America Committee on the Mental Health Needs of Children in Foster Care and a member of the Child Welfare league/Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Summit on Children in Foster Care. Lenore Behar received the Secretary's Award for Excellence as an outstanding employee in the North Carolina Department of Human Resources in 1992. In 1995, Lenore Behar received an award from the Washington Business Group on Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Mental Health Services for Youth Program for her leadership in the field of children’s mental health. In 1995, Lenore Behar also received an award of appreciation for her work to develop services for children with emotional disturbances from the North Carolina Association of County Directors of Social Services. Lenore Behar is the 1995 recipient of the Nicholas Hobbs Award from the American Psychological Association. In 1996, Lenore Behar received a lifetime achievement award from the National Research and Training Center at the Florida Mental Health Institute. In 1998, Lenore Behar received an award from the North Carolina Mental Health Association for Leadership in Child Mental Health Services One of her major accomplishments has been to develop a national model of child mental health services through a contract with the Department of Defense and the State of North Carolina (MH/DD/SAS). That contract, begun in 1989, funded a five-year demonstration project to provide all needed mental health services to the 48,000 children at Fort Bragg. This is the largest and most comprehensive program in the country and the demonstration is providing significant information about mental health needs and mental health care. The impact has been to demonstrate that community mental health services can substitute adequately for hospital services when the community services are comprehensive and available. Lenore Behar worked with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in 1988 to help them develop a national initiative in child mental health. The Foundation has now given $24 million to fund 8 states over 4 years to develop model programs, particularly focusing on avoiding out of home placements. A second focus of these programs has been to help state governments restructure the financing of child mental health services. Lenore Behar initiated Carolina Alternatives, North Carolina’ Medicaid managed care program for children; additionally, Lenore Behar worked with the Annie E. Casey Foundation on the design of another national initiative that expands upon the concept used in the Robert Wood Johnson Programs and that is to develop child mental health services that are neighborhood based and represent the best cross agency efforts. Lenore Behar has worked within North Carolina to implement these same concepts that represent the major trends in child mental health services. In addition to her responsibilities in the Division of MH/DD/SAS, Lenore Behar also has served as the Coordinator for the North Carolina-Israel Partnership for the Department of Health and Human Services. In this capacity, Lenore Behar has worked in partnership with colleagues in North Carolina and in Israel to develop an International Stress Prevention Center at Tel Hai College, which focuses on assisting communities worldwide to prepare and handle the trauma of natural and man-made disasters. Lenore Behar has developed a child mental health demonstration with the Ministry of Health and has completed a comparative study of child health delivery systems. Lenore Behar has organized an annual international conference on children’s issues, which focuses on comparative strategies for dealing with children’s aggressive behaviors in school, school violence, and the coordination of services to children and families. Lenore Behar was a member of International Advisory Committee for the 6 th International Conference on Grief and Bereavement in Contemporary Society, held in Jerusalem in July 2000. Lenore Behar is a certified facilitator with Concept Systems, Inc. Lenore Behar is also one of the founding members of A START (the Alliance for Safe, Therapeutic, and Appropriate Use of Residential Treatment, an organization sponsored by the Bazelon Institute and the University of South Florida, Louis de la Parte Mental Health Institute and dedicated to addressing issues of unlicensed, unrelgulated residential services for children. Lenore Behar served on the Raleigh-Durham Airport Authority Board from 1988-1990, representing Durham County and from 1992-1998, representing the City of Durham and the Duke Unviersity Development Council, from 1993-95. Home - Preschool Questionaire - Biographical Sketch - Resume - Articles/Papers - Links