Mountain Comprehensive Care Center (MCCC) will implement Project LAUNCH to promote the wellness of young children, from birth to 8 years of age, by addressing the social, emotional, cognitive, physical, and behavioral aspects of their development, and prepare them to thrive in school and beyond as well as disseminate effective and innovative early childhood mental health practices and services to the catchment area to include 36 counties in eastern KY while also ensuring inclusion of racial and ethnic minority families and underserved populations.
Population: The targeted catchment area includes the Area Development Districts of Big Sandy (Floyd, Johnson, Magoffin, Martin, Pike counties), Bluegrass (Bourbon, Clark, Estill, Fayette, Garrard, Harrison, Jessamine, Madison, Powell), Buffalo Trace (Fleming, Lewis, Mason, Robertson), Cumberland (Clay, Harlan), FIVCO (Boyd, Carter, Elliott, Greenup, Lawrence), Gateway (Bath, Menifee, Montgomery, Morgan, Rowan), and KY River (Breathitt, Knott, Leslie, Letcher, Perry, Wolfe). The population is anticipated to include 88.1% who identify as White, 5.7% Black, 3.2% Multi-racial, 1.5% Asian, 1.2% other race, 0.2% Native American, 0.04% Pacific Islander, and 3.4% Hispanic. Males will account for 49.5%, females 50.5%, with 3.4% of adults who identify as LGBTQ+ with 26% raising children. Poverty, ACEs, health disparities and crisis are key factors affecting children/families.
Interventions: Project staff will develop partnerships so children can access screenings, assessments, interventions, and care to quicky identify and address any concerns while also training parents/guardians. The project will also train primary care providers to integrate behavioral health care while working with early care and educational providers to conduct mental health consultations and services to meet the needs of their programs. The project will develop a Young Child Wellness Council to coordinate care between child/family systems and programs, and educate the public about early child development and mental health care. Services will be culturally/linguistically competent, age/developmentally appropriate, trauma-informed and individualized to each family.
Goals: MCCC will provide services for 75 children/families in Year 1 increasing to at least 150 annually in Years 2-5 (675 total). Goals for the targeted population include: 1) Improve the wellness of young children by identifying and addressing concerns related to the social, emotional, cognitive, physical, and behavioral aspects of their development, and promoting resilience; 2) Improve the capacity of adult caregivers to promote healthy social/emotional development by disseminating effective/innovative early childhood mental health practices and services; and 3) Improve equitable and inclusive access to high quality education, care, and resources, and ensure effective project operation by implementing a YCWC and CQI. Objectives achieved by end of each project year include: 1.1) provided screening, assessment, intervention, and/or referrals so 60% show improvement in their functional status [at 6-month follow-up]; 1.2) provided mental health consultation in early care and education so 60% show improvement in their caregiver or recovery environment; 2.1) provided training on healthy, safe, secure environments for young children so 60% show improvement in their parent/caretaker relationship or involvement; 2.2) provided knowledge, skills, and resources to partners to address young children’s/caregivers’ behavioral health needs within primary care settings through 16 trainings; 3.1) conducted YCWC meetings 4 times/year to support the project and improve collaboration across child/family-serving systems/programs; 3.2) monitored race, ethnicity, and other data at least 4 times/year to ensure equity/inclusion among BIPOC populations and revise outreach; 3.3) conducted CQI meetings 4 times/year to monitor goals/objectives, disparities, and adjust as needed.