Fall 2006 Coming Your Way… Iowa’s Healthy Mental Development Initiative for Young Children (ABCD II)

A promising pilot program to promote healthy mental development of young children is on its way to a successful conclusion at the end of this year. Preliminary data from demonstration sites shows: More children are getting effective developmental and mental health screening Health care providers report that through the pilot program they have been able to provide better care, and they plan to continue these screening practices in the future.

Called the Iowa Healthy Mental Development Initiative for Young Children, this program is supported by an ABCD II grant from the National Academy for State Health Policy and the Commonwealth Fund. The initiative approaches developmental services for children birth through age 3 through a three-level system of care; at the first level are services for all children; at the second, services for children at risk; and at the third level, services for children with a diagnosed condition.

The first goal of the initiative is to build the capacity of primary health care providers to deliver better screening, identification, and developmental services for young children. Pilot sites applied Iowa’s proposed standards for the identification of developmental and social-emotional problems, and tested Iowa’s new Health Maintenance Clinical Notes (HMCN) as a part of each child’s exam. These age-appropriate HCMNs include:

• A concise tool to facilitate review of developmental milestones

• Questions to help identify autism, behavior issues, and parent risk factors

• Topics to be included in anticipatory guidance

A second goal of the Healthy Mental Development Initiative is the testing of model public-private partnerships to link at-risk children and families to services. A strategy that shows real promise is a “hot line” health care providers can call for prompt assistance with referrals for at-risk children.

Learn more about the Iowa Mental Development Initiative for Young Children and proposed standards in the next issue of the EPSDT Care for Kids Newsletter.