Governor’s Early Childhood Mental Health Initiative

Mission
The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services contracts with the Public Policy Center to administer this project. The Governor’s initiative is designed to develop an integrated system of mental health care using a collaborative network of existing providers and new services that fill critical gaps in the current system for young children (prenatal to five years) with behavioral/emotional issues and their families in seven central Nebraska counties. This effort is based on research indicating that the emotional wellness of young children is fostered in secure, warm relationships with parents and other caregivers and critical to healthy early development and later school success. For children with early signs of distress and behavioral challenges, appropriate and early intervention strategies can prevent a lifetime of increasingly intense and complex problems. The system of care incorporates the following principles:

• Child focused and family centered
• Culturally responsive
• Community based
• Comprehensive, coordinated and integrated
• Committed to continuous improvement and reflective supervision

Project Objectives
This system of care is lead by the Mary Lanning HealthCare Foundation, a non-profit charitable foundation, concerned with both resource and fund development and community health care initiatives. New services to be developed through the project include:

• depression screenings for mothers in the perinatal period through obstetrical caregivers
• home visitation for families of children six weeks to 3 months by training volunteers from churches and other community organizations
• capacity for early childhood assessments by training primary health nurses
• an early childhood center with resource library, a 1-800 number, and telehealth capacity for mental health consultations
• on–site mental health consultation and training for child care providers and preschools
• coordination of wraparound and family support training of child care providers
• a Community Advisory Board and Executive Board to coordinate early childhood mental health services in the seven county area

Local partners include: Mary Lanning HealthCare Foundation; Monroe Meyer Institute; Region III Behavioral Health Services; Mary Lanning Memorial Hospital; County Central District Health Department; South Heartland District Health Department; Head Start Child & Family Development Program, Inc.; Families CARE; and Hastings College.

Advisory Committee
The PPC facilitates a state advisory committee to provide technical assistance to the project, generate lessons learned from project implementation, and identify and address policy barriers. University faculty, involvement represents the following units: UNL Center on Children, Families, and the Law; UNL Department of Educational Psychology; UNL Department of Family and Consumer Sciences; UNL Department of Psychology; UN Public Policy Center; and UNMC/Monroe-Meyer Department of Education and Child Development. Other agencies who are members of the advisory committee include: NE Department of Education; Early Childhood Training Center; Governor’s Policy Research Office; and NE Department of Health and Human Services.