Infant Mental Health

About the Program

Category: Health (Best in Category)

Year: 2011

Community mental health service providers deliver Infant mental health (IMH) services to Medicaid-eligible parents and infants. Programs enroll pregnant women and children from birth to the age of 36 months in Wayne County/ families served have parents with depression or other mental disorders that place their infant/toddler at risk, and/or infants/toddlers that are already diagnosed with attachment or regulatory disorders. Parents and infants together receive IMH services in the home. Increasing IMH capacity and quality were goals off the Detroit-Wayne County Community Mental health Agency (D-WCCMHA) IMH expansion effort launched in 2006. The D-WCCMHA achieved these goals, expanding services from three programs in 2006 to eight programs in 2009, including IMH programs for Arabic and Spanish speaking populations. Program stakeholders report improvements in the quality and program capacity of IMH services as a result of the expansion effort. A summative evaluation of the IMH program found that IMH was effective in improving maternal mental health status, promoting children’s social-emotional development and maternal self-efficacy, promoting parent-child attachment, and preventing child abuse and neglect. Additional findings include improvements in immunizations and other health outcome, resulting in cost savings to the mental health and child welfare systems.