The Blanche F. Ittleson Award recognizes outstanding achievement in the delivery of children’s services and the promotion of children’s mental health. This award was established in honor of Blanche F. Ittleson, a pioneer in the treatment and vocational training of individuals with developmental disabilities and emotional disturbances.
Throughout her life, Mrs. Ittleson was continuously active in the fields of mental health, social work and philanthropy. In 1932, she and her husband began the Ittleson Foundation, a philanthropic organization interested in the areas of health, welfare, public education for mental health and intercultural relations. During the 1950’s, Mrs. Ittleson initiated and funded the Henry Ittleson Center for Child Research in New York, in honor of her husband, and the Blanche F. Ittleson Chair of Child Psychiatry at Washington University. The Henry Ittleson Center was established to further the care of emotionally disturbed children. This organization continues to provide treatment and schooling for children with autism, psychotic disorders, or victims of abuse. The Blanche F. Ittleson Chair of Psychiatry was the first endowed chair in child psychiatry in the United States.
 Dr. Jean Twenge accepts the Blanche F. Ittleson Award from Robin Kimbrough-Melton, Ortho Executive Officer. |
2011 Blanche F. Ittleson Award Recipient
Dr. Jean M. Twenge
Jean M. Twenge, PhD, is Associate Professor of Psychology at San Diego State University. Dr. Twenge was honored for her groundbreaking research and commentary on generational trends in the mental health of children, adolescents, and young adults. Through careful and creative cross-temporal meta-analyses of studies using common personality scales and through cross-cohort comparisons of responses to national annual surveys, Dr. Twenge has provided stunning evidence of generational increases in young people's misery. In so doing, she has demonstrated the causal relationship between societal declines in social capital and threats to young people's mental health. She has drawn attention to the epidemic of loneliness resulting from cultural obsessions about individual achievement and entitlement (defined in both instances in relation to personal prestige and material wealth). In thoughtful recommendations for public policies designed to enhance our care for one another, she has provided ambitious but achievable prescriptions for public mental health. |
Past Blanche F. Ittleson Award Winners
 Dr. Ellen Bassuk |
2010 Blanche F. Ittleson Award Recipient
Dr. Ellen L. Bassuk
Ellen Bassuk, MD, is a leading clinician, researcher, and advocate on behalf of
homeless families and individuals. Dr. Bassuk is a board certified psychiatrist
and an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. She is a
graduate of Brandeis University and Tufts University School of Medicine, and was
awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Public Service from Northeastern University.
Dr. Bassuk was honored for her leadership in responding to the needs of homeless
families in the United States. As founder and president of the National Center
on Family Homelessness, Dr. Bassuk has been at the forefront of research and
evaluation, program design, service delivery, and advocacy on behalf of homeless
children and families. In particular, she has led in the description of the trauma
experienced by many homeless children and the development of strategies for
its mitigation. As a former editor of the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry and
the visionary leader of the national Campaign to End Family Homelessness, she
exemplifies the application of mental health expertise in the service of Ortho values.
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 Dr. Gary B. Melton, Director, accepts the award from Dr. Richard Krugman on behalf of the Institute on Family and Neighborhood Life. |
2009 Blanche F. Ittleson Award Recipient
The Institute on Family and Neighborhood Life
Clemson University
Located in the Office of the Vice President for Public Service and Agriculture at Clemson University, the Institute on Family and Neighborhood Life (IFNL) at Clemson University helps to generate, share and apply the research foundation for youth, family, and community development. Work at IFNL starts from the premises that strong communities support strong families and vice versa, and that both are necessary for healthy development of children and youth.
The Institute on Family and Neighborhood Life (IFNL) was honored for innovation, leadership, and dedication in the design, implementation, and study of strategies to strengthen community support for families, both in South Carolina, the Nation, and the World. Grounding their work in respect for human rights, IFNL faculty emphasize their personal and social significance of protection of important relationships in both family and community life.
They have used this normative perspective in the design of strategies relying on the transformation – and sometimes the development – of primary community institutions. Such strategies have the common element of ensuring that “people don’t have to ask” for help in everyday settings. Relying on “natural” community assets, IFNL faculty and staff have applied this idea in building and evaluating systems for personal safety and family support in schools, early childhood centers, churches, grassroots organizations, and whole communities. In strengthening social and material support for all, they have developed systems capable of responding to the exceptional needs of adolescent parents, recent immigrants, families of prisoners, and families in crisis, including families lacking the necessities of life. In so doing, they have not only met immediate personal and collective needs in ways that were respectful of the communities with which they worked, but they also have provided models useful in diverse cultural contexts. Communicating these models more broadly, IFNL faculty have developed a unique international doctoral program and related partnerships abroad.
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2008 Blanche F. Ittleson Award Recipients
Froma C. Walsh, PHD
Froma C. Walsh, PhD, is the Mose and Sylvia Firestone Professor Emerita of Clinical Social Work in the Social service Administration and the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Chicago. She is also the Co-Director of the Center for Family Health. Dr. Walsh was honored for her distinguished contributions to the development of an approach to family therapy that recognizes and makes use of the strengths and resources of families. Through her research and clinical experience, Dr. Walsh has demonstrated how the use of a resilience model that builds upon a family’s potential, resourcefulness, and strength can help families overcome adversity, recover from trauma and loss, and address life’s challenges. Using this knowledge, Dr. Walsh has expanded our understanding of families and given all professionals new strategies for enhancing their work with families. Her work has thus made important contributions to the well-being of families and to the development of practice that is respectful of the dignity of families.
John S. Rolland, MD
John S. Rolland, MD, is the Co-Director and Co-Founder of the Chicago Center for Family Health. He is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. Dr. Rolland was honored for his groundbreaking work in the generation and application of knowledge about the relationship of serious illness and disability to the well-being of families and for his articulation of an integrative treatment model – the Family Systems Illness Model – that can help practitioners provide more humane interventions to families struggling with the full range of chronic and life-threatening disorders. Through his previous position as founder and director of the Center for Illness in Families at Yale University and in his current position as co-director of the Center for Family Health at the University of Chicago, Dr. Rolland has a distinguished himself both nationally and internationally in providing highly practical guidance to health and mental health professionals and to students who are grappling with providing interventions that are respectful of the families with whom they are working and their challenges.
2007 Blanche F. Ittleson Award Recipient
David A. Wolfe, PhD
David A. Wolfe, PhD, is the RBC Investments Chair in Children’s Mental Health and Developmental Psychopathology which is held jointly by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and the University of Toronto. Prior to his current appointment, Dr. Wolfe was Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry and Academic Director of the Center for Research on Violence Against Women and Children at the University of Western Ontario. He was formerly chair of the United Nations Sub-Committee on Child Abuse in Peacetime, and Chair of the Violence and Traumatic Stress Review Committee, US National Institute of Mental Health. Dr. Wolfe was honored for his many contributions to the development and evaluation of universal approaches to enhancement of the safety and well-being of children and adolescents. Uniquely, Dr. Wolfe has been a leader in research on (a) the causes and consequences of threats to young people’s safety, (b) prevention to avoid such wrongs, and (c) treatment to mitigate their effects. Dedicated to the establishment of more humane communities in which young people may grow with a sense of security and belonging, Dr. Wolfe has made important contributions to broad-based programs and policies for the prevention of both child maltreatment and intimate partner violence.
 Dr. Edward F. Zigler holding the Blanche F. Ittleson Award alongside Dr. Gary B. Melton, Ortho President, 2004-2005, and Dr. Diane Willis, Ortho President, 2006-2008. |
2006 Blanche F. Ittleson Award Recipient
Edward F. Zigler, PhD
Edward F. Zigler, PhD is Sterling Professor Emeritus; Director Emeritus, Edward Zigler Center; and Co-Director, Zigler Center Head Start Unit. Dr. Zigler was honored for decades of leadership in the development of systems of universal support for children and families. The designer of Schools of the 21st Century, Dr. Zigler himself pioneered in the development of programs of comprehensive school-based assistance to families with children. Widely recognized as the central figure in the development of Head Start and related programs, Dr. Zigler has also been a tireless advocate for federal policies designed to create and sustain humane settings for children’s care—settings that also welcome and assist the children’s parents. In so doing, he has been a remarkable model for expression of social concern and application of developmental science by generations of mental health professionals and students.
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