Thursday, May 29, 2025
5/29/2025
Building Strong Foundations: Expanding and Sustaining Early Childhood Mental Health Services - This application, Building Strong Foundations: Expanding and Sustaining Early Childhood Mental health Services (BSF), is submitted by the Mental Health and Recovery Board of Union County (MHRBUC), the behavioral health planning and funding authority for Union County, Ohio. BSF will provide the enhanced infrastructure, processes, and services needed to build strong Early Childhood Mental Health Services as part of our comprehensive system of care. BSF includes a partnership between the MHRBUC, Union County Board of Developmental Disabilities (UCBDD) and their two preschools; Harold Lewis Preschool and LEADS Head Start, Marysville Exempted Village School District (MEVSD), North Union Local Schools (NULS), three local behavioral health providers; Maryhaven, Ohio Guidestone, and Council for Union County Families (CUCF), our region’s largest children’s hospital, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, and University of Connecticut Innovations Institute (UConn). In 2019, MHRBUC began a significant plan to link child serving systems, behavioral health providers and payers to support expanded mental health services to Union County youth across the full Institute of Medicine’s Continuum of Care (Springer & Phillips, 2007). Mosaic, a 2019 SAMHSA System of Care (SOC) award, created local centralized intake, mobile response and stabilization services and service coordination model for youth and families. In 2022, Union County Project AWARE expanded Mosaic, embedding behavioral health services within schools for grades K-12. Union County’s Project AWARE responded to specific needs for students in grades K-12, however, there are gaps in our continuum of care and a growing need for intentionally designed services for children ages 0-8. BSF will support Union County children and families by providing a comprehensive evaluation process, implementing Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation, establishing behavioral health integration within pediatric primary care, enhancing child and family screening, and implementing a variety of early childhood mental health services including parent programs, family peer support, and outreach. BSF will serve at least 25 families per year and 185 families over the grant period. This project will address data-driven areas of need including enhanced collaboration and partnership, mental health literacy, continuum of care access, early intervention, expanded services and support, and continuous quality improvement. The goals of the project include; Goal 1: Enhance collaboration and partnership between child, family, preschool, school, primary care providers, and community behavioral health service providers to increase awareness of mental health and behavioral health issues among young youth (0-8)., Goal 2: Identify and create opportunities to support preschool staff, youth serving providers, families’ mental health literacy and skills to support ECMH and wellbeing., Goal 3: Identify and remove barriers to access, engagement, and service delivery for services across the IOM continuum of care to promote and foster resilience building and mental health well-being., Goal 4: Establish and expand evidence-based, trauma-informed prevention and behavioral health interventions as part of the early childhood preschool system of support framework., Goal 5: Sustain and Expand critical System of Care supports and services across the Institute of Medicine’s Continuum to connect early childhood aged youth with behavioral health challenges to the right service at the right time, and Goal 6: Improve outcomes and reduce disparities through evaluation and continuous quality improvement cycles.
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).