Thursday, November 21, 2024
11/21/2024
The Baltimore-Network of Early Services Transformation (B-NEST) project is designed to enhance access to integrated trauma-informed pediatric primary care for young children, engage families in preventing traumatic stress and increase capacity of pediatric professionals and local child-serving systems to address early childhood mental health needs. Trauma and poverty are pervasive in Baltimore. Nearly one-third of Baltimore children experience two or more traumas or adverse life events by age 17 and up to 20% demonstrate social-emotional concerns requiring intervention by kindergarten. With one in three children in Baltimore living in poverty, the historical trauma, racism, and disparities experienced by Baltimore's children have an enormous impact on their mental health outcomes. The University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) will implement B-NEST with predominately African American children ages 0-5 years living in poverty in Baltimore City. B-NEST will increase ACE prevention and early trauma intervention by implementing an integrated primary care program, HealthySteps (HS) in the UMMC pediatric primary care clinic to deliver evidence-based screening (2,000 children total), pilot attachment assessment tools (500 children and caregivers) and deliver targeted intervention to 250 children. We will link identified families to two-generational, evidence-based trauma treatment and attachment-based parent education interventions such as Child Parent Psychotherapy, Attachment Vitamins, and Trauma Focused-Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to provide 500 treatment services each year. B-NEST will also increase family and professional early childhood mental health knowledge and trauma responsive skills through training and coaching. We will implement the NCTSN PICC Toolkit and outcome tools to 2,000 children in our HS site and provide training in Attachment Vitamins to 25 pediatric PCPs, mental health providers, allied health professionals and community health workers and will bi-annually deliver this intervention to families through our HS site, Community Engagement Centers and/or city partnerships to 100 parents and caregivers. Lastly, community based services and activities will be conducted by a trauma-trained community health worker (CHW) added to the HS site to increase community engagement and access to family education and public awareness through peer-led interventions and workshops. The CWH will provide community voice to support localized implementation efforts and train a cohort of local grandparents to deliver ACE training in community settings (reaching 100 community members). Taken together (4,975 children, parents/caregivers, providers, and community members impacted), B-NEST will significantly enhance the availability, quality, effectiveness, and coordination of trauma-informed IECMH services in Baltimore. Lessons learned from B-NEST would serve as a blueprint for subsequent statewide implementation and collaborations with SAMHSA and NCTSN partners.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).
