Why We Need a New System of Care for California’s Youngest Children and Their Families

This story was originally published in the Chronicle of Social Change. Click here to read the original version.

One of the co-authors of "Whole-Family Wellness for Early Childhood: A New Model for Medi-Cal Delivery and Financing," co-released by the First 5 Center for Children's Policy and the California Children's Trust, Alex Briscoe discusses the need for family- and community-centered care for young children in Medi-Cal.

In a paper released today, the California Children’s Trust and the First 5 Center for Children’s Policy propose a paradigm shift in how California conceptualizes, delivers and funds a system of care for MediCal eligible infants, toddlers and their families.

Whole-Family Wellness for Early Childhood: A New Model for MediCal Delivery and Financing is co-authored by Ken Epstein and Alicia F. Lieberman of the University of California, San Francisco — two of our state’s leading lights on mental health, youth development and dyadic therapy — along with myself and Nila Rosen of the California’s Children Trust.

The California Children’s Trust is a coalition-supported initiative to re-imagine how California defines, funds, administers and delivers children’s social, emotional, developmental and mental health supports and services. We serve a coalition of more than 400 community-based organizations, providers, administrators and advocates partnering to confront systemic failures, institutional racism and social inequities in California’s behavioral health and child-serving systems.

The crisis we formed to confront is real. Self-reported mental health needs for children have increased 61 percent since 2005. Hospitalizations for suicidal thoughts and attempts have gone up 104 percent over the past decade and intentional self-injury rates have doubled. Nationally, suicide is now one of the leading causes of death for children, outpacing cancer and car accidents.

Read the rest of the story here.