was a pioneering child psychiatrist, mental hygiene and child guidance leader, and early member of the American Orthopsychiatric Association (now the Global Alliance for Behavioral Health and Social Justice). Throughout her illustrious career, Kenworthy advocated for values in the emerging field of child psychiatry, especially around prevention of mental illness, interdisciplinary collaboration, and social justice. Kenworthy's history provides not only an illustration of the importance of values in the work related to children but also a reminder of perspectives that can get lost in the contemporary focus on individual diagnoses and treatments (especially with pharmaceuticals). The social, cultural, and economic problems encountered by Kenworthy and her contemporaries remain as challenges in the present and the future, ones that require ongoing interdisciplinary collaboration and advocacy.
Public Policy Relevance StatementKenworthy's history helps to illustrate the rich complexity of child mental health and the perspectives that have been obscured with the push in child psychiatry toward a focus on psychopathology. The work of the Global Alliance for Behavioral Health and Social Justice continues the work conducted by Kenworthy and her colleagues, a reminder of the importance of more explicit advocacy work for all children.This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.