The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #62087

Deborrah Bremond, PhD, MPH¹, Margie Gutierrez-Padilla, LCSW², Jane Wellenkamp, PhD¹, and Janis Burger, RD, MPH¹. (1) First Five Alameda County, 1850 Fairway Drive, San Leandro, CA 94577, 510-667-3960, dbremond@co.alameda.ca.us, (2) Alameda County Behavioral Health Care Services, 303 Hegenberger Road, #312, Oakland, CA 94621

In 1998, California voters passed The California Children and Families First Act (Proposition 10), creating an unprecedented opportunity for improving the health and well-being of children 0 to 5 years of age and their families through funding from a tobacco tax. The Alameda County Children and Families Commission (First Five Alameda County) was the first Commission in the state to approve its strategic plan, Every Child Counts. One of the goals of Every Child Counts is to improve the development, behavioral health, and school readiness of young children from birth to age five. To promote mental wellness and reduce symptoms of behavioral, social, and emotional difficulties in young children, Every Child Counts is partnering with Alameda County Behavioral Health Care Services, Children's Hospital Oakland, and other agencies to develop a county-wide system of prevention and early childhood intervention mental health services. One important component of this effort is mental health consultation in child care settings. Steps taken to develop system-level changes that support mental health consultation will be presented, along with achievements to date. These include increases in the number of mental health clinicians capable of working with young children, their families, and their child care providers; the development of shared guidelines and policies; and the creation of "partnership grants" to forge ties between mental health consultants and to track common outcomes and performance measures. Lessons learned from the implementation of mental health consultation in a number of child care settings will also be discussed.

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of the session, the participant will be able to:
• Identify potential benefits of providing mental health consultation in child care settings
• Describe the steps taken to develop a county-wide approach for addressing mental health issues in child care environments
• Identify and describe potential systems-level and program-level challenges, as well as possible solutions to those challenges, when implementing mental health consultation in child care settings
• Identify outcome and performance measures that can be used to assess the effectiveness of mental health consultation services

Keywords: Mental Health, Child Care

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.