Recommendation: Early intervention
What Parents Said...
And I saw it in him when he was about 13 months
old for the first time. I thought that this is odd behavior. And
by the time he was two, he had been booted out of five different
day cares...The gap in identifying services for him and identifying
a diagnosis and offering him adequate treatment was almost 10 years.
(Oregon)
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[At age 5] she tried to put a pillow
over a child’s head to kill her. Now that she was a risk to
herself and others have I finally got a mental health caseworker.
(New York)
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Early intervention that could have prevented deterioration and avoided
significant future problems and future costs is rarely available, the
parents noted. In both states, families reported knowing from infancy
or early toddlerhood that their child had a major problem. Typically,
they said, formal helping systems only acknowledged these needs and provided
formal assessments and diagnosis many years later. Some parents reported
delays of between six and 15 years. The experience of a small group of
families in Oregon whose children had been identified by their local Head
Start program through a special initiative demonstrates a more workable
approach. Families in the group were able to obtain needed services and
reported that their children were doing relatively well.
Mental health services for very young children need to be expanded so
they and their families receive effective interventions when children
are identified. One proven approach is for child care and preschool programs
to have access to necessary mental health expertise to enable young children
with significant mental health care needs to be identified and referred
to early intervention services.
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