The Best Beginning: Partnerships Between Primary Health Care and Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services for Young Children and Their Families

This document was developed as a resource for health care providers and policy makers at all levels. It provides an overview of innovative efforts across the country where health care providers have attempted to treat families as a whole, provide care in the context of a medical home, identify mental health and substance abuse disorders early, and make successful referrals and linkages to community-based mental health and substance abuse services and supports.

This document includes a relevant literature section, eight case studies of primary care sites using innovative approaches to serve pregnant women and/or families with children birth to three years old, a synthesis of these approaches, lessons learned, and strategies to assist others in replicating these approaches.