Policy Resource

Louisiana Provides Home Visiting Professionals with Infant-Early Childhood Mental Health Supports

Jul 9, 2017

Early on, the Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program leaders recognized that their clients were likely to have a number of stressors, including maternal and infant mental health issues, which could interfere with parenting and the parent-child relationship.

Unfortunately, there were few mental health services for children younger than 5 years old or pregnant women. As a result, a 30-hour training in infant mental health (Foundational Infant Mental Health training) is now offered to all nurse home visitors. In addition, state administrators added a half-time licensed mental health professional to each home visiting team. The mental health specialists provide direct services to clients, and they also provide education, support, and guidance to the home visitors. Working hand-in-hand, the infant mental health specialist and nurse home visitor are now better able to meet the mental health needs of very young children and their parents who are served by home-visiting programs.

Learn more about Louisiana and how other states are using MIECHV funds to strengthen their early childhood systems in ZERO TO THREE’s paper, The Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program: Smart Investments Build Strong Systems for Young Children.

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