© 2025 First 5 Center for Children’s Policy. All rights reserved.
Blog Post
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.
Blog Post
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.
Blog Post
Jul 19, 2021
Among the many important investments in this year’s state budget, California’s new dyadic care benefit in the Medi-Cal program is particularly significant.
Blog Post
Ann Isbell, PhD • Jun 24, 2021
First 5 LAs new developmental screening and referral toolkits are an opportunity for health providers to establish developmental screening or maximize existing screening practices to benefit from available funds, as well as ensure that children and their families are connected to necessary resources as soon as possible.
Blog Post
Kathryn Margolis • Jun 9, 2021
Dyadic care models like HealthySteps provide important support to families with young children. Such care is particularly important in this pandemic- recovery time, which exacerbated mental health concerns, family stress, isolation, and income insecurity, particularly for BIPOC families who already face health inequity due to structural racism and oppression.
Blog Post
Sarah Crow • Christina Altmayer • Mar 30, 2021
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.
Blog Post
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.
Blog Post
Alexandra Parma • Mar 25, 2021
California’s children covered by Medi-Cal Managed Care received alarmingly low levels of recommended preventive care in 2019, according to data newly released by the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS).
Blog Post
Alexandra Parma • Dec 14, 2020
Millions of children in California do not receive the preventive health services they are entitled to under federal law. With new data reporting requirements in place, however, California’s administrators and policymakers will be better equipped to develop strategies that increase uptake of these services.
Blog Post
Alexandra Parma • Dec 8, 2020
This blog summarizes the three webinars focused on Medi-Cal, managed care, and the important roles these systems play for young children that First 5 in collaboration with the Pediatrics Supporting Parents Project (PSP), led by Manatt Health, Donna Cohen Ross, and the Center for the Study of Social Policy hosted.
© 2025 First 5 Center for Children’s Policy. All rights reserved.