We insist on putting little kids first.

California’s Medicaid Breakthrough: An Opportunity to Advance Children’s Social and Emotional Health

Sarah Crow  •  Christina Altmayer  •  

Revamping Medicaid policies to improve young children’s social and emotional health and address health care inequities is particularly critical in California, where over half of children ages 0 to 5 have Medicaid coverage (known as Medi-Cal, in California), and two-thirds are children of color.

First 5 San Mateo County Releases Early Intervention Environmental Scan to Catalyze Local Systems Change

Cheryl Oku  •  Sep 29, 2021

First 5 San Mateo County conducted an environmental scan to describe the local system of care, highlight critical barriers, and identify potential opportunities for local stakeholders to improve the local EII system. Their report was published in March of 2021.

Dyadic Therapy Changes Lives

Pradeep Gidwani, MD  •  Ruth P. Newton, PhD  •  Sep 8, 2021

Individual therapy approaches cannot capture the complexity involved as parent, baby, their relationship, their family system, and the culture they are in, all interact. Dyadic therapy, where parent and infant/young child are treated together, addresses all levels of these interacting factors.

Prioritizing Children and Families in California’s New Community Health Worker Benefit

Alexandra Parma  •  Sep 15, 2021

The First 5 Center, First 5 Association, and our partners listed below recently submitted stakeholder comments to inform California’s definition of the new Community Health Workers benefit.

Plan Partnership Project Playbook: A Guide for First 5 Commissions Starting Relationships With Medi-Cal Managed Care Plans

This playbook offers practical advice to First 5 leaders for developing partnerships with managed care plans.

Understanding Children’s Mental Health Services under Medi-Cal

This webinar covers Medi-Cal mental health services for children and was presented by Kim Lewis, Managing Attorney at National Health Law Program.

Medi-Cal Financing Overview

This brief provides an overview of the relationship between federal and state Medicaid funding, financing structures in Medi-Cal managed care, and other considerations for First 5 commissions and advocates interested in children’s health care delivery.

Systems Interactions: Medi-Cal Managed Care and other Health Care Delivery for Children on Medi-Cal

This brief describes additional delivery systems that families may have to access in order to make full use of the EPSDT Medi-Cal benefit, and their relationship with Medi-Cal managed care.

Lessons and Opportunities: How First 5s can create meaningful partnerships with their Medi-Cal Managed Care plans

Apr 23, 2021

This brief highlights a few key lessons and points of intersection, provided by First 5 Alameda, First 5 LA, and First 5 Ventura through their work over the last several years and as part of the Pediatrics Supporting Parents project.

California can take steps to address mental health crisis for children, parents and child care providers

Sarah Crow  •  Mar 29, 2021

The time to prepare is now. California can take several steps to address mental and behavioral health concerns of young children ages 0 to 5, their parents, and child care providers over the next year to reduce adverse childhood experiences and build resilience.