SAMHSA partners with federal agencies to encourage successful child development at home, school

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Health Resources and Services Administration and the Administration for Children and Families announced they are partnering to establish a National Center of Excellence to facilitate successful development of children at home, in child care and in school.

The center, fully named the National Center of Excellence for Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation (IECMHC), is an intervention to increase the ability of teachers, home visitors and parents to address challenging behaviors and promote social and emotional development of children.

The model has exhibited the following positive outcomes:

improving children’s social skills;
reducing challenging behaviors;
increasing collaboration between families and schools;
improving child-adult relationships;
preventing preschool suspensions and expulsions; and
increasing classroom quality and reducing teacher stress, burnout and turnover.

The center is expected to provide state-of-the-art tools, training and technical assistance to build sustainable IECMHC systems and provide home-visiting professionals with skills to help families deal with health and mental health issues, such as attachment disorders, trauma and maternal depression.

The center will enable teachers to consult mental health professionals to help create positive and nurturing learning environments, manage challenging situations and address implicit biases that may lead to racial inequalities, according to a SAMHSA press release.

“This National Center of Excellence is one important instrument to promote the health and wellbeing of the next generation, and to realize the president’s vision of access to high-quality early care and education for all,” the organization said in the release.

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