Wisconsin Alliance for Infant Mental Health

with Children's Service Society of Wisconsin

Wisconsin Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Plan

The Wisconsin Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Plan ("the Plan") presents a blueprint for a comprehensive system of care that includes prevention, early intervention, and treatment. The goal is not to set up another silo for services, but rather weave infant and early childhood development principles into the fabric of all systems that touch the life of children under the age of six. The Plan works through existing public and private structure to enhance people's ability to support healthy social and emotional development.

Plan Development

In October 2002, we hosted an Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Summit. Over 100 participants representing a variety of disciplines from both state government (including public health, mental health, substance abuse, public instruction, child welfare, corrections, and education) and private providers gathered to share their thoughts on the challenges and opportunities related to infant and early childhood mental health. Participants at the Summit were divided into five mixed discipline work groups and answered questions related to public policy, training, and service delivery. The data gathered was used to develop the Wisconsin Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Plan.

Four sub-committees were created to develop the plan:  policy, service delivery, training, and public awareness. The goal of each sub-committee was to develop recommendations using the information gathered at the Summit. The sub-committees met over a nine-month period and developed goals, as well as corresponding potential strategies, and implementation tasks related to their sub-committees.  An edit committee compiled the recommendations of each subcommittee into one plan document and reviewed for completeness and flow. Next, a review team comprised of northern and rural individuals, including parents, provided content suggestions regarding applicability to their specific setting and experience. Finally, a system/expert review team provided edits based upon their respective expertise.

Participants from a number of settings guided the work and included parents as well as representatives from multiple agencies and systems that provide direct care or education for children under the age of five.  The systems include child welfare, child care, corrections, public health, mental health, substance abuse, health care, parent education and support, early education, academic, early intervention, and Medicaid.

Plan Content

The Plan has seven goals. All of these goals have corresponding suggested strategies and implementation tasks. The framework moves from the broader population to more targeted sub-populations. It begins by looking at the community at large and moves through a continuum focusing first on all children and families, then children in need of early interventions, and finally, children in need of treatment. The first four goals focus on communities, children, and their families.  Goals five, six, and seven address supports necessary to effectively influence change:  training, sound public policy, and funding. These supports are the infrastructure of the system of care.  The graphic illustrates the system of care moving from the broad population to more targeted groups and includes the supports necessary for a comprehensive system of care.

Infant Mental Health System of Care

The broad objective is to weave infant mental health practices and principles into the everyday activities of people working and interacting with infants, young children, and their families. Below are the goals found in the Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Plan:

Goal 1:  Raise the public awareness of the mental health and developmental needs of children birth to age six and the consequences of poor social and emotional development.

Goal 2:  Enhance communities' ability to support and strengthen the emotional well-being of all young children and their families.

Goal 3:  Develop a coordinated system to screen and assess the social and emotional mental health needs of children birth to age five and develop a consistent referral procedure for services in the context of family, culture, and community.

Goal 4:  Increase and support mental health treatment options and interventions for children birth to age five and their families.

Goal 5:  Build a training infrastructure for infant mental health in Wisconsin including Level 1 front-line caregivers, Level 2 early interventionists, and Level 3 infant mental health therapists.

Goal 6:  Develop public policies that support the promotion of healthy social and emotional development as well as prevention, early intervention, and mental health treatment services for children birth to age five and their families.

Goal 7:  Secure additional funding for mental health services for children birth to age six and their families across funding streams.

Plan Implementation

The Plan is rather ambitious so we can not work on everything at once, but work on specific pieces.  Logically, some activities need to occur before others.  For example, before workers start screening children to identify if there is a problem, we need to know who in the state is competent to provide mental health services to young children.  Below is a list of the four action groups that have formed to define specific action steps, delineate timelines, and identify who will be responsible for each step.

1. Increasing public awareness and community readiness (Public Awareness & Community Readiness Group)

2. Enhancing capacity to support healthy social and emotional development (Capacity Building Group)

3. Determining who provides mental health treatment to children five and under (Treatment Services Group)

4. Increasing coordination of Birth to Three services and child welfare system (Birth to Three and Child Welfare Group)

The action groups are also responsible for defining the specific child centered outcomes.  The action groups are again comprised of parents and people from a variety of disciplines from both the public and private sector.

ATTENTION!  Recently the four action groups have combined efforts to form only two groups:

1. Public Awareness and Community Readiness

2. Capacity Building

Next Steps

The Plan is a work in progress.  Listening sessions will be held throughout the state with parents and other key informants to ensure the recommendations represent all children and families in the state.  These sessions will help determine the most helpful strategies and implementation tasks to support children and families starting at birth.  If you have specific questions, please contact Therese Ahlers at (608) 442-8036 or by e-mail.

Wisconsin ALLIANCE FOR infant Mental Health

133 south butler street, Suite 340 • madison, wisconsin  53703

Last Updated July 17, 2008