Promoting Children’s Mental Health

In just one year, 950 abused and neglected children under the age of six entered the child welfare system in Denver. To prevent these children from developing emotional and behavioral disorders, the Denver Department of Human Services partnered with a local children's mental health center to provide early intervention services for these children and their families. As a result, children receiving services showed dramatic reductions in trauma-related symptoms and improved attachment to their caregivers.

This community effort was part of the federal Building Mentally Healthy Communities initiative, developed and implemented between 2001 and 2006 through the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's Center for Mental Health Services. During this time, 23 community-based programs were funded to provide promotion, prevention, and early intervention programs to children at risk of developing emotional or behavioral disorders.

An important aspect was to better integrate mental health services by bringing them to the youth and their families in their homes, schools, and community. Promoting Children's Mental Health, a new HHD publication, highlights lessons learned through this initiative and features programs with significant accomplishments.

The National Center for Mental Health Promotion and Youth Violence Prevention, operated by HHD, worked with the communities to use a public health approach to better identify problems, understand the underlying influences, and implement appropriate solutions. This process involved four steps:

1. Collect and use data to identify community problems
2. Select and put in place programs known to be effective—“evidence-based interventions”
3. Monitor and evaluate the interventions
4. Educate professionals and the public about the importance of prevention and effective implementation

There is hope for children like those in the Denver welfare system who experience family disruption, abuse, neglect, or poverty. The communities that were a part of the Building Mentally Healthy Communities initiative shifted the odds in favor of better outcomes for youth and families who face disadvantages.