Hot Topics Spring 2008
Infant & Early Mental Health Initiatives
Hot Topics is a new feature of Map created to identify resources and information about areas of interest that people are talking about in the field. The topic will change periodically. For our first “Hot Topic” we’ve chosen “infant and early mental health initiatives.” The websites below identify and describe current and past initiatives in California.
First 5 Association Early Childhood Mental Health Project, supported by the California Endowment, convenes teams from 22 counties to discuss strategies for developing local and statewide systems of care to support children’s social and emotional health. Presentations from their latest meeting are posted on the website. See the “Meeting 3” Systems Change Keynote presentation by Dr. Penny Knapp for a summary of the history and current directions of infant mental health in California.
Early Mental Health Initiative (EMHI),funded through the California Department of Mental Health, provides matching grants to Local Education Agencies to implement early mental health prevention and early intervention programs. Programs funded through EMHI must be on a school site and focused on services for children in kindergarten through third grades who are experiencing mild to moderate school adjustment difficulties. The program is not intended to serve students with more severe difficulties.
Early Developmental Screening and Intervention (EDSI) project, a partnership between First 5 LA County and UCLA’s Center for Healthier Children, Families and Communities, is a 5 year, 5.5 million dollar grant created to improve early identification and intervention for young children with developmental or behavioral problems by transforming community systems in LA County.
Mental Health Services Act Prevention and Early Intervention (MHSA PEI) (Prop 63) The passage of Proposition 63 (now known as the Mental Health Services Act 
or MHSA) in November 2004 provides an opportunity for the California Department of Mental Health (DMH) to provide increased funding, personnel and other resources to support county mental health programs and monitor progress toward statewide goals for children, transition age youth, adults, older adults and families. The Act addresses a broad continuum of prevention, early intervention and service needs and the necessary infrastructure, technology and training elements that will effectively support this system.
- Prevention and Early Intervention is one of the seven components of the MHSA. Links to the main MHSA PEI site and the MHSA PEI County and State Level Policy Direction are available by clicking here
- Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission County and State Level Policy Direction describes the background and policy direction for the MHSA prevention and early intervention funds. Click here to view
- The MHSA PEI planning process is introduced by the First 5 Los Angeles County web site.
California’s Infant Preschool Family Mental Health Initiative 2000-2005 funded by First 5 CA funded development of mental health services for very young children and their families in 8 pilot counties.
First 5 Special Needs Project (SNP) followed California’s Infant Preschool Family Mental Health Initiative. The SNP implemented a collaborative early screening and services project in 10 county demonstration sites. Visit their site for Products and Practices from the project.
ABCD II Assuring Better Child Health and Development is an initiative administered by the National Academy for State Health Policy anddesigned to build state capacity to deliver care that supports children’s health mental development. California is one of the five participating states.
ABCD Screening Academy is a successor of ABCD II. The National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP) has selected 18 states, including California, along with Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, to participate in a 15 month national consortium to improve early identification of young children with developmental problems. Public-private partnerships in each state will improve policy and clinical practice so that children’s developmental and behavioral disorders are identified and treated at as early an age as possible. The consortium is being administered from May 2007-August 2008 by NASHP, with funding support from The Commonwealth Fund. Pilot sites are in Los Angeles and Orange Counties.
