Our Advocacy
MSPCC is proud of its long history of defining and shaping child welfare policy. Our direct service work with children and families informs our agenda, exposing trends in the needs and challenges that families face. MSPCC engages in public policy advocacy on issues related to child and family well-being, such as child abuse prevention, foster care, child welfare reform, mental health, and adolescent substance abuse prevention. MSPCC advocates with state leaders to ensure that the Commonwealth supports critical funding and policies to meet the needs of at-risk children and families.
The Issues:
Parent and Family Supports
Parents and caregivers are a child’s first contact to the world around them. The quality of these relationships plays a significant role in a child’s cognitive, emotional, physical, and social development. MSPCC programs and public policy initiatives are focused on families living in poverty and struggling with mental illness, substance abuse, domestic violence, and/or community violence, so that children are healthy, safe, school ready, receive nurturing supportive care, and have positive relationships with their parents or caregivers.
Children’s Mental Health
Efforts to support healthy development in children must include focused attention to children’s mental health and the prevention of adverse childhood events. Research indicates that serious symptoms of mental health issues can begin to manifest in infancy and toddlerhood. Mental health issues may be biologically-based, a reaction to an adverse childhood event such as sexual abuse, or the impact of postpartum depression. Children with behavioral health conditions and those who are victims of abuse and neglect share a troubling set of expected life outcomes, including increased rates of suicide, serious physical health conditions, substance use disorders, and early onset of sexual activity.
MSPCC targets its children’s mental health public policy goals to support proven efforts, improving capacity for early identification and treatment, and reforming practices that inhibit school success. MSPCC is a founding member and the coordinating agency of the Children’s Mental Health Campaign, whose leadership includes Boston Children’s Hospital, Parent Professional Advocacy League (PPAL), Health Care For All (HCFA) and Health Law Advocates. Through this coalition of more than 165 organizations, we champion children’s mental health.
Between 9.5% and 14.2% of children ages birth to 5 experience an emotional or behavioral disturbance
Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders (PMADs)
The Massachusetts Mind the Gap Coalition is a new advocacy group working to address Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders (PMADs) here in Massachusetts, formed with support from Postpartum Support International’s Mind the Gap State Policy Series. We work on a platform of legislation focused on improving mental health supports where they are needed the most, as well as related maternal health bills (such as on doula and midwifery care) that impact new parent mental health. Our members include health care organizations, nonprofits, community-based organizations, survivors of PMADs and/or pregnancy and infant loss, and other advocates. To learn more or join us, please click here or contact Jessie Colbert at jcolbert@mspcc.org.
PMADs like postpartum depression are the #1 complication of pregnancy, impacting at least 20% of moms and birthing people and 10% of partners, yet go largely undiagnosed and untreated. Unfortunately, parents facing racial and/or economic inequities are even more likely to experience PMADs and less likely to access care. When left untreated, these disorders have troubling implications for child development, as well as larger community, societal, and economic impacts.
Foster Families
Children enter foster care through no fault of their own. They have been abused and/or neglected and are unable to live safely with their parents. All of these children in care have experienced loss and some form of trauma causing harm to their developing brains, affecting them years later with their physical health, cognitive and academic functioning, and social emotional well being. These outcomes can be positively influenced by the type of placement, the stability of the placement and access to services and supports.
MSPCC works closely with the Massachusetts Alliance for Foster Families (MAFF), to advocate for children in foster care and the families who care for them. Ensuring that the daily rate of support for foster children is sufficient to meet a child’s basic needs means that income alone is not a barrier to an otherwise appropriate foster placement with kin and that DCF can recruit and retain a stable and diverse pool of foster homes throughout MA. Most children in care will be reunited with their biological parents. MSPCC works to ensure children in care have access to quality health care, including behavioral health care and educational achievement.
