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Early Childhood Development Experts Share Ideas for Emotional Well Being of Infants, Children and Families

October 7, 2008

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One-by-one, representatives from six Washington counties stood to share their ideas with state policy makers on improving the delivery of mental health services to children ages birth through six years.

“Our task is to get our geese flocking together and aim for the same area of prevention,” said Janet Sire-Anderson, MS, Director of Children and Family Services at Kitsap Mental Health Care, whose sentiments echoed the work of each of the six-county teams at the conference, held September 23-25 at the SeaTac Marriott and sponsored by the Council for Children and Families, the Washington State Department of Early Learning, and the state’s Mental Health Transformation Project.

Nearly 50 participants from across the state attended the conference to address the mental health needs of children birth through six years -- or as the group preferred to call it, “the social and emotional well being of infants, young children and their families.” Although professionals from 27 of the 39 counties in Washington State wanted to attend the conference, showing a significant level of interest in the topic, funding limitations capped attendance to six counties including Klickitat, Snohomish, Grant, Whatcom, Spokane and Kitsap.

The group included teachers, administrators, childcare providers, mental health professionals and others. Participants generally agreed that prevention efforts are key to the long-term health and well-being of children, families and community resources. But putting prevention efforts in place was the more perplexing question, and the purpose of the conference.

“We understand that most good work happens at the community level and we wanted to learn what the work is, so that we can understand what our work needs to be to help address some unmet needs,” said Joan Sharpe, Executive Director for the Council for Children and Families. She said the conference was one path taken to try to learn more about the unmet needs at the community level. “Learning from each other will help us all move forward.”

A full report of the conference findings will be released in mid-October. Other major themes delivered by the group included:

  • The need to change the paradigm from supporting mental illness treatment services to supporting mental wellness.
  • The need to improve training and funding support to retain qualified staff who understand the work involved in supporting children and families with mental health needs
  • The need to communicate better with community members regarding services and financial support that are currently available.
  • The need for state departments to avoid duplication of efforts and ensure policies and services are aligned.
  • The need to ensure prevention measures have been taken and put in place before referrals to more intensive and expensive mental health services are made.
  • The need for better measurement and evaluation methods that ease the burden of local agencies yet provide enough information to ensure further legislative funding and support.
  • The need for every member of the community, regardless of background, to feel valued.
  • The need to provide services when people need them, not when they become eligible based on state/county criteria.
  • The need to ensure that children are in consistent, healthy relationships regardless of a home situation that may be unstable.

Limited resources to support children and family services was a resounding theme at the conference. Some of the more rural counties pointed out that even basic services for children like shelter and food are limited or not available in some counties, let alone mental health services.

Johanna Roe is the Parent Program Coordinator for the Skamania Klickitat Community Network in White Salmon, a district that spans 3,500 square miles with a combined population of 30,000 residents.

With a good-humored smile, she said, “We operate on the ‘STP’ model of services -- meaning that the ‘Same Ten People’ pretty much offer all the services in the two rural counties.”

Roe was not alone. State Rep. Maureen Walsh, R-Walla Walla , said, "Children’s services continue to struggle with funding that comes and goes, and that is a huge problem. We hope some of the solutions to the problem will come at the community level through partnerships and in-kind resources that will help to address service solutions and present the community with a continuum of support."

Other legislators attending included Rep. Mary Helen Roberts, D-Edmonds, and Representative Mary Lou Dickerson, D-Seattle, who chairs the House Humans Services Committee. Both Roberts and Walsh serve on the Early Learning and Children’s Services Committee, and have championed legislation to support funding and new policies to benefit children, infants and families.

Among the presenters at the Conference were representatives from the University of Washington, University of Florida, Seattle and King County Public Health, Catholic Family and Child Services, Child Care Action Council, Navos, Puget Sound Educational Service District, Columbia River Mental Health, and the Cowlitz Center of Foster Care Health.

The Power Point presentation provided by Juliet Torres, Ph.D., Assistant Director, Systems, Partnerships and Collaboration Division of the Department of Early Learning (DEL) outlines DEL’s current projects. Additional information about DEL is available at the DEL website. ““Training materials from the conference can be found through the Council for Children and Families' website” or through Strengthening Families”.

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