B18B874ACE65383387258464005B3F05 Hearing Summary CLICS/CLICS2019A/commsumm.nsf PUBLICBILL SUMMARY For EARLY CHILDHOOD MENTAL HEALTH (ECMH) STATE EFFORTSINTERIM COMMITTEE EARLY CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOL READINESSDate Aug 28, 2019 Location SCR 357 Early Childhood Mental Health (ECMH) State Efforts - Committee Discussion Only Attachment Tag File Name Attachment http://www2.leg.state.co.us/CLICS/CLICS2019A/commsumm.nsf/0/322CDEF0291B...$File/190828 AttachD.pdf?OpenElement 190828 AttachD.pdf Attachment http://www2.leg.state.co.us/CLICS/CLICS2019A/commsumm.nsf/0/5E957185DE2E...$File/190828 AttachE.pdf?OpenElement 190828 AttachE.pdf Attachment http://www2.leg.state.co.us/CLICS/CLICS2019A/commsumm.nsf/0/883BE1E75D6F...$File/190828 AttachC.pdf?OpenElement 190828 AttachC.pdf 10:36:41 AM Senator Story called the meeting back to order. Mary Alice Cohen, Director, Community and Family Support, CDHS, Connie Fixsen, Early Childhood Mental Health Program Coordinator, CDHS, Lisa Schlueter, Early Childhood Mental Health Lead Specialist, CDHS, Elly Miles, Office of Early Childhood, CDHS, and Lisa Jansen Thompsen, Early Childhood Partnership of Adams County, came to the table to begin their presentation, which can be found as Attachment C. The panel discussed Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation, a service partnering early childhood and mental health consultants to improve the overall development and mental health of children in schools. Ms. Cohen spoke about early childhood mental health delivery, and stated that there are three levels of partnership, child, classroom, and program, and that working with a mental health consultant leads to strong outcomes for the providers, parents, and children and helps every child start school being ready to learn. 10:48:03 AM Ms. Cohen discussed the Incredible Years program, which is a suite of prevention programs to increase a child's success at school and home by improving positive relationships between child and teacher and child and parent. The Incredible Years is comprised of the following components: Teacher Classroom Management program, Dinosaur School Social Skills Curriculum, and the pre-school BASIC Parent program. Ms. Cohen spoke about suspensions and expulsions in early care learning settings, explaining that research shows children ages zero to five are being expelled at three times the rate of those in the K-12 system. Ms. Miles shared information about the methodology and findings of the study conducted by the Office of Early Childhood on early child care suspensions and expulsion rates. She explained the main reasons for explusions and suspensions are hurting other students or staff and destroying property such as furniture or equipment. She stated that early child care centers that used a mental health consultant in the past year had a lower rate of suspensions and expulsions. She concluded by speaking about the study's key findings, which include: providers desire more in-class support and coaching around challenging behaviors; 65 percent of providers are aware of the mental health consultation program; and 86 percent found it easy to access, but only 1 in 4 providers have used the program due to a lack of consultants. 11:12:05 AM Ms. Schlueter answered questions about the Preschool Development Grant (PDG). Ms. Cohen answered questions about funding for early childhood mental health consultants. Ms. Schlueter spoke more about the PDG and the prospect of piloting a home visiting expansion to Friends, Family, and Neighbor Care networks. 11:21:25 AM The panel members discussed action steps to focus on, including increasing awareness and knowledge of positive and preventative early childhood mental health practices, increasing the ECMH workforce, and directing in-class supports and resources to settings and populations at highest risk for suspension and expulsions. Ms. Jansen Thompsen began her presentation on Project LAUNCH, which can be found as Attachment D. She explained that Project LAUNCH is a five year federal grant with six required strategies: screening and assessment, integrated behavioral health, early child mental health consultation, enhanced home visiting, strengthening families, and system improvements. She explained that all screening and assessments are being conducted through local entities that have already exist in communities and are being supported by the project. She talked about integrated behavioral health care to support three health clinics through professional development opportunities to increase use of best practices in serving young children and families. The panel answered questions about family stressors that can lead to mental and behavioral health issues for children and families. 11:38:38 AM Ms. Jansen Thompsen answered questions regarding the relationship between Project LAUNCH and Launch Together. She said that the next steps for Project LAUNCH are to focus on Family Resource Center hubs. 11:43:27 AM The next panel on ECMH came to the table: Sarah Davidon, Research Director and Director of Child and Adolescent Strategy for Mental Health Colorado, Bill Jaeger, Vice President of Early Childhood and Policy Initiatives, Colorado Children's Campaign, and Ellen Stern, Senior Policy Coordinator for Children's Hospital Colorado, introduced themselves to the committee. Dr. Davidon discussed the history of ECMH consultation, and talked about how home visiting programs and ECMH consultation lower suspensions and expulsions. She distributed a handout to the committee (Attachment E) and talked about the need to utilize ECMH consultation as one part of a variety of tools and strategies. Dr. Davidon outlined what have been determined to be the essential elements necessary for a stable and sustainable ECMH consultation system. She said the three most important elements for a consultation system to focus on and support in order to be sustainable are: program infrastructure (ie. dedicated and sustained funding), quality consultants, and quality services. 11:57:02 AM Ms. Stern spoke about the Children's Hospital's involvement in ECMH consultation. Mr. Jaeger spoke about what the Colorado Children's Campaign has learned from conversations with their early child care network about the biggest challenges they are facing, the top two of which are the challenges facing the early child care and education workforce and access to mental health services for providers. The commission broke for lunch.