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Published Online: 10 November 2020

Preventing Risk and Promoting Young Children’s Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Health in State Mental Health Systems

Abstract

Early neural development and maternal health have critical long-term effects on children’s mental health and outcomes later in life. As child mental disorders continue to rise nationwide, a number of states are considering new ways of investing in the critical early childhood period to prevent later poor outcomes and reduce the burden on the mental health system. Because most state mental health authorities (SMHAs) have no dedicated mental health dollars to devote to this early, crucial period of child development, building coalitions is key to implementing prevention and promotion programming. The authors describe two issues—coalition building and contractual considerations—that should be considered as SMHAs develop these types of policies or plan new prevention and promotion initiatives. Coalition building includes establishing the structural conditions for implementing a prevention or promotion initiative, resolving workforce issues (i.e., who will carry the program out), and engaging communities and families in the effort. Contractual considerations include establishing agreed-upon measures and metrics to monitor outcomes, assigning accountability for those outcomes, and delineating realistic time frames for these investments before expecting improved outcomes. The promise of moving services upstream to support early childhood development, to prevent mental health issues from derailing children’s development, and to promote children’s well-being are goals that are within reach.

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Information & Authors

Information

Published In

Go to Psychiatric Services
Go to Psychiatric Services
Psychiatric Services
Pages: 311 - 316
PubMed: 33167817

History

Received: 6 March 2020
Revision received: 6 August 2020
Accepted: 11 August 2020
Published online: 10 November 2020
Published in print: March 01, 2021

Keywords

  1. State-university collaboration
  2. Child psychiatry/general
  3. Prevention
  4. Early childhood interventions

Authors

Details

Kimberly Eaton Hoagwood, Ph.D. [email protected]
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, New York University, New York (Hoagwood); Center for Innovation in Pediatric Practice, The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio (Kelleher); Behavioral Health Innovation, Mental Health America, Alexandria, Virginia (Counts); Children's Health Initiative, United Hospital Fund, New York (Brundage); Public Health Communications Consulting, LLC, North Royalton, Ohio (Peth-Pierce).
Kelly Kelleher, M.D.
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, New York University, New York (Hoagwood); Center for Innovation in Pediatric Practice, The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio (Kelleher); Behavioral Health Innovation, Mental Health America, Alexandria, Virginia (Counts); Children's Health Initiative, United Hospital Fund, New York (Brundage); Public Health Communications Consulting, LLC, North Royalton, Ohio (Peth-Pierce).
Nathaniel Z. Counts, J.D.
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, New York University, New York (Hoagwood); Center for Innovation in Pediatric Practice, The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio (Kelleher); Behavioral Health Innovation, Mental Health America, Alexandria, Virginia (Counts); Children's Health Initiative, United Hospital Fund, New York (Brundage); Public Health Communications Consulting, LLC, North Royalton, Ohio (Peth-Pierce).
Suzanne Brundage, M.Sc.
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, New York University, New York (Hoagwood); Center for Innovation in Pediatric Practice, The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio (Kelleher); Behavioral Health Innovation, Mental Health America, Alexandria, Virginia (Counts); Children's Health Initiative, United Hospital Fund, New York (Brundage); Public Health Communications Consulting, LLC, North Royalton, Ohio (Peth-Pierce).
Robin Peth-Pierce, M.P.A.
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, New York University, New York (Hoagwood); Center for Innovation in Pediatric Practice, The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio (Kelleher); Behavioral Health Innovation, Mental Health America, Alexandria, Virginia (Counts); Children's Health Initiative, United Hospital Fund, New York (Brundage); Public Health Communications Consulting, LLC, North Royalton, Ohio (Peth-Pierce).

Notes

Send correspondence to Dr. Hoagwood ([email protected]).

Competing Interests

The authors report no financial relationships with commercial interests.

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