What’s happening:
Parents and caregivers are a child’s first contact to the world around them. The quality of these relationships and the environment, in which those relationships develop, play a significant role in a child’s cognitive, emotional, physical, and social development. Research has demonstrated the benefits of safe, stable, nurturing relationships and environments and the negative outcomes attributed to child abuse and other adverse events in childhood (ACEs). 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.
What we’re doing:
Requiring commercial plans to cover wraparound services
We are working to ensure that community and home-based behavioral health care services are available for children and adolescents who are covered by commercial insurance. Currently, these services are only available to children with MassHealth and their families, through the Children’s Behavioral Health Initiative (CBHI). We strongly believe that all children should have access to a range of services that allows them to stay at home, in their school, and in their communities. Learn more here.
Improving funding for early child mental health consultations in child care settings
We also work to ensure that an array of programs and services for children with behavioral health needs are adequately funded in the state budget. Learn more here.
Promoting use of the Diagnostic Classification of Mental Health Disorders of Infancy and Early Childhood, Revised Edition (DC: 0–3R)
We work with the Office of Medicaid to develop a “crosswalk” between the DC: 0-3R and the DSM-V and the ICD-10, and to secure its use in billing Medicaid/MassHealth for infant-early childhood mental health services.
What you can do:
Sign up today for action alerts from the Children’s Mental Health Campaign! Receive alerts on important legislation and we will send you the information you need to take action by writing or calling lawmakers on behalf of vulnerable children.