providing mental health &
substance abuse  services for
the people of Alameda County ...  

 
Click here to go to homepage!
 

Overview
Information for Providers
Resources

Print This Page


Click here to send us your feedback.

Last Updated:  11/14/2005

Copyright © 2005
Alameda County Behavioral Health Care Services

 


Vision and Priorities for Children Between 0 - 5 Years of Age  Printer Friendly Version

 
Vision

System of care for 0-5 yr olds focuses on three areas: Promotion, Prevention and Treatment.  EPSDT funding is only for the treatment part of the continuum

Promotion examples:

  • Early Childhood Mental health Systems Development Workgroup
  • Infant and Family Mental Health Seminar

Prevention examples:

  • Early Childhood Consultation Program (BHCS)
  • Early Childhood Mental Health Partnerships (ECC)

Treatment examples:

  • Options limited may be expanded through EPSDT

Target Populations

Parental/caretaker (p/c) risk factors may place the child at high risk or children may have a diagnosable condition separate from p/c risk factors.

Infants and Young Children exposed to:

Abuse and neglect, domestic /community violence, exposed in utero to drugs/alcohol, born with a biological risk, are in out of home placement

Parents/caretakers who:

Have poor parenting skills, come from war-torn countries, are resource poor or marginalized, have experienced significant illness or loss, have been incarcerated, has significant mental illness, or maternal depression


Sources of Referrals

Parents, early child care and education environments, CPS, Primary care providers, Community based agencies, Prevention programs without a treatment component, drug treatment programs, Court mandated, Spiritual communities, Foster care system, Community mental health agencies who may be involved with other family members


Priorities

  • Geographically based focused on low performing schools

  • Birth to Three because resources are most limited for this group

  • Agencies that have non-traditional approaches (home-visiting)

  • Agencies that show expertise in dealing with externalizing behavioral disorders in 3-5 yr. olds

  • Children who fail child care

  • Areas of the county that are poorly served with ethnically, culturally or linguistically appropriate services

  • Agencies who are qualified to serve 0-5 population (evidence of training or plan for training)


Requirements

  • Participation in CQRT (Continuous Quality Review Team)

  • Outcome Criteria; what are the appropriate measures?

  • Programs to share what they have used ; program, individual and family, process or clinical outcomes

  • Integration of 0-5 services into foster care and school-based mental health systems this is not a free-standing service

  • A point person for families with multi-agency involvement

  • For BHCS Build capacity within ACCESS A person trained at ACCESS to triage 0-5 referrals

  • Collaboration with the 0-5 system of care with regular meetings