Project Launch
Wheeler Clinic, Inc.
Funded Years : 2010
Project Director :
Melissa Mendez
860-793-3500
mmendez@wheelerclinic.org
Address :
Plainville,CT
Project Status : Active
Project Summary : The purpose of the Promising Starts: Early Childhood Wellness Consortium is to promote the positive development of at-risk children ages 0–8 by (1) building a coordinated, community-based, enhanced-capacity system of care, (2) providing universal behavioral health assessment in pediatric practices, (3) strengthening services through effective referral, collaboration, case management, and comprehensive pre-service and in-service training of providers, (4) implementing the evidence-based Child FIRST parenting, mental health consultation, and home visiting model, and (5) building system-wide competency to address these needs. Wheeler Clinic, the lead agent for the Consortium, is a human service, not-for-profit agency providing early childhood, mental health, substance abuse, special education, juvenile and criminal justice, prevention, wellness, and recovery services to adults, children, and families throughout central Connecticut.
New Britain is one of Connecticut's most concentrated urban cities; its population of more than 70,000 resides within just 13 square miles. Almost two-thirds (59 percent) of the residents are white/non-Hispanic, 31 percent are Hispanic, 8 percent are African American, 1 percent are Asian or Pacific Islander, and 1 percent fall into the category of “Other.” The city's poverty rate of 16 percent is twice the state's average, and 30 percent of children under age 18 live below the poverty level. Fifteen percent of families with children under age 6 receive public assistance. New Britain's teen parent birth rate is double the state's rate, and 41.7 percent of all infants are born to mothers who receive inadequate prenatal care.
Goals
New Britain has several early childhood initiatives, with some collaboration but little coordination. Promising Starts: Early Childhood Wellness Consortium proposes to do the following:
• Increase the number of children ages 0–8 who receive mental health services
• Identify earlier the children who need services
• Improve service coordination
• Reduce the number of children expelled from child care due to behavioral challenges
• Provide professional development and pre-service education to early education providers on understanding and meeting the needs of infants and young children
• Empower families so that they can advocate for improved services and better access to care and eliminate barriers to services
• Offer parents opportunities to improve their parenting skills and foster greater attachment with their children
• Increase communication and collaboration among providers serving children and families
Strategies
Promising Starts: Early Childhood Wellness Consortium will implement Child FIRST (Child and Family Interagency Resource, Support, and Training), an evidence-based practice model of home-based service delivery for at-risk families. The model, premised on early identification, assessment, and intervention, uses a variety of assessments, including Ages & Stages, Brief Infant-Toddler Social Emotional Assessment, Devereaux Early Childhood Assessment, Abidin's Parenting Stress Index, and Modified Checklist of Autism in Toddlers.
The Consortium will implement the Circle of Security intervention program, as well as mental health consultation. Wheeler Clinic currently provides Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation in child care centers, and will now expand this provision to include family child care, infants, toddlers, and school-age children (5–8 year olds), using the Center for Social Emotional Foundations for Early Learning framework.
The Consortium will increase the capacity of a broad child-serving workforce by adopting Michigan Association of Infant Mental Health competencies and by training various stakeholders, including but not limited to primary care providers, mental health professionals, child protective service supervisors and/or consultants, center-based and family child care, early interventionists, Head Start, foster families, and early childhood educators in higher education.
Expected Outcomes
Promising Starts: Early Childhood Wellness Consortium will serve 60 children and families using the Child FIRST home-based model—20 children the first year, and a total of 260 children by Year 5. Early Childhood Mental Health will be provided to 8–24 teachers or caregivers per year for each of the five years. Thirty-six families per year will participate in Circle of Security. In the initial 18 months, 10 individuals (3 faculty, 1 state agency representative, 1 foster family, 1 child care provider, and 4 professional-level people) will work toward endorsement. Thereafter, 10 individuals will seek endorsement per year. Fifty child care providers and 40 mental health professionals will receive training each year.
The Consortium's efforts will result in the following:
• Early identification of children needing services
• Provision of services to children before they lag behind
• Children and families receiving appropriate services along the continuum of care
• Community providers better equipped to address infant and early childhood mental health issues
• Professionals in degree programs receiving infant and early childhood mental health-related training
• More effective connections of families to referred services
• Support to frontline staff who provide care to children with challenges
• Parents who are better able to nurture and parent their children
• A more accessible, effective, family-friendly, and culturally relevant service delivery system that can influence the local and statewide service delivery system
Evidence-Based Programs :
Child FIRST
Circle of Security
