The chapter focuses on services delivered within the public mental health system, because most services research has been conducted on samples of maltreated children involved with the child welfare system and served by the public system. A section on the need for mental health services notes that children with developmental problems have been found to be almost two times more likely to remain in foster care than be reunified with their families. The authors conclude that the high rate of need for mental health services in the foster care population and possibly in the full child welfare population indicates that full assessment protocols rather than screening protocols may be the most appropriate strategy for identifying children with maladaptive problems and linking them to specific interventions. In California, Washington, and Pennsylvania, there is consistent evidence that the foster care system may serve as a large gateway into the mental health service system for children who have been abused or neglected. Other topics discussed in the chapter are pathways into mental health services, the effectiveness of mental health services, and organization and financing in an era of managed care. 92 references