Project Launch
Maine
Funded Years : 2008
Project Director :
Sheryl Peavey
sheryl.peavey@maine.gov
Address :
State of Maine Division of Health and Human Services
Princeton,ME
Project Status : Active
Project Summary : Washington County's Community Caring Collaborative (CCC) is a grassroots coalition of 37 agencies and tribal entities serving high-risk infants and children, many who have been exposed to substances or are born preterm, trauma exposed or born to teen parents and families in northeastern rural Maine. The Project LAUNCH grant will support the CCC and Maine's Center for Disease Control in partnering to create an integrated public health model that is strength-based, culturally competent, and family-driven.
Tucked away in the northeast coastal corner of Maine, Washington County is the most impoverished county in the state with a 28.4 percent child poverty rate. With a population of 33,000, it is home to the Passamaquoddy Tribe, 3,500 of whom live on two reservations. The last decade has brought an epidemic of synthetic opiate abuse to the county, resulting in significant number of preterm births, low birth weight infants, and an estimated 30 percent prenatal substance exposure rate with at least one third of those infants having neonatal abstinence syndrome. These children and families have complex needs requiring comprehensive and coordinated early intervention services by health, mental health, early intervention specialists, substance abuse, and other providers. Long distances between towns and services and a lack of service coordination further complicate the situation. Often as a result, key child-serving agencies are not seeing high-risk babies and their families until around the ages of three to five, missing a precious window of time for the most effective intervention.
In 2006, a diverse group of Washington County organizations and community members came together through the CCC to find ways to support families with at-risk infants and children earlier and more effectively and with improved service continuity. Since then, the CCC has worked locally and at the state level to build systems that support promotion, prevention, and intervention services for community families that are strength-based and culturally and linguistically competent; and draw on natural supports and best practice techniques for individual family-driven interventions.
Maine's Project LAUNCH goals are:
State level:
• Establish a public health model combining early intervention, mental and behavioral health, substance abuse prevention, and primary care
• Increase best practices in intervention at earliest possible ages
• Develop and disseminate a sustainable, cost effective model of integrated service delivery for rural settings
Local level:
• Implement a high-fidelity wraparound service delivery with a single shared plan for each child and family
• Embed early intervention personnel in rural health centers, pediatric and family practices and other key agencies
• Develop a multidisciplinary curriculum and credentialing process for Infant and Family Support Specialists
• Develop a continuum of parent education and family strengthening services accessible throughout the county
• Develop training and professional development resources by partnering with universities
• Implement mental health consultation
Evidence-Based Programs :
Home Visiting
Systems of Care/Wraparound Family Case Management
Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation
Touch Points
Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ)
