Family-focused depression care: A National Academy of Sciences (NAS) report urges a more coordinated approach to treatment of parents' depression because of its potential impact on their children. A new family-focused model of depression care will require collaborative experiments with nontraditional ways of organizing, paying for, and delivering services, according to the advisory committee that developed the report, which was chaired by Mary Jane England, M.D., child psychiatrist and president of Regis College in Weston, Massachusetts. About 15.6 million children under 18 live with an adult who has had major depression in the past year. Typically, adult screening does not consider the impact of parents' mental health status on their children. In addition, there is no intervention model or comprehensive strategy to prevent problems among children when a depressed parent is being treated. Among many specific steps, the committee recommends extension of Medicaid coverage for mothers to 24 months postpartum and an end to payer restrictions on certain services, such as home visits. The 382-page report, Depression in Parents, Parenting, and Children: Opportunities to Improve Identification, Treatment, and Prevention, is available online on the National Academies Press Web site at www.nap.edu.