Markeshia Ricks photo
Harp talks with DCF’s Williams.
Over the next five years, the Connecticut Department of Children and Family Services, the Department of Public Health and the City of New Haven will receive $4 million in federal funds to prove that providing integrated physical and mental health services improves outcomes for the city’s youngest children, particularly those who live in the Dwight neighborhood.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and New Haven Mayor Toni Harp announced Tuesday that the money will be used to design and implement a pilot program that will create an integrated physical and mental health system for children from birth to 8 years old. The program will be concentrated in the Dwight neighborhood because of already established networks in that neighborhood including those through the New Haven MOMS Partnership and the Augusta Lewis Troup School.
Department of Children and Family Services Deputy Commissioner of Operations Michael Williams said New Haven was chosen because it already provides an array of services through its schools, neighborhood-based social services organizations and Yale-New Haven Hospital, which was a requirement of the grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
“We want to have a whole life approach,” Williams said a a press conference Tuesday. “We want to enhance the partnership between physical and mental health care through best practices and the promotion of prevention, early identification and intervention.”
Williams said Elm City Launch will focus its efforts in four specific ways:
• Strengthening integration of physical and mental health services by embedding care coordination and clinical services in pediatric practices to ensure early screenings and assessment, triage, service referral and case management for maternal and young children’s needs;
• Embedding early childhood consultation partnership consultants in New Haven schools focusing on early identification, staff development and triage (grades pre‑K through eight);
• Promoting system collaboration by establishing a Young Child Wellness Council to convene service providers to build an integrated and seamless service system for young children and families; and
• Building capacity/knowledge for medical, mental health and educational practitioners around best practices linked to improved health and well-being outcomes for young children and families.
Mayor Harp said over the next five years the city has the opportunity to expand access to services especially mental health services in a way that could serve as a model for the rest of the state and even the nation. She said the the development of Elm City Launch also is part of the state’s ongoing response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
Superintendent of Schools Garth Harris said that the grant aligns with the increased role that schools play beyond education as it works to provide social, emotional and mental health supports.
“We know that social, emotional and mental health are part of the path to career and college success,” he said.
Williams said the project is expected to improve early access to mental and behavioral health service for children and their families, along with increased screening and early identifications of issues that might improve with services.