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MINUTES-Final ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH November 18, 2015 S:\Managers Working Files\BOH\Agenda & Abstracts\2016 Agenda & Abstracts/ January Page 2 V. Educational Sessions A. Early Childhood Mental Health Ennis Baker, Mental Health Specialist for Orange County Head Start/Early Head Start (OCHS/EHS) and co-chair of the Early Childhood Mental Health (ECMH) Task Force, began with an introduction of herself and an overview of OCHS/EHS. She had also provided a folder full of in depth information to BOH members about OCHS/EHS, various articles on ECMH and recommendations for improving early child development. Ms. Baker stated that OCHS is available to income-eligible 3-5 year olds living in Orange County while EHS is available to income-eligible pregnant women and children up to age 3. Ms. Baker stated that the OCHS/EHS: • only serves the Orange County school district • is serving 244 children under 5 years old including pregnant women • provides high quality child care and education, parent education, comprehensive health, mental health & developmental screening and follow up • provides in home visits and parent-child playgroups • offers a variety of services with a team of specialists that includes bilingual family specialists and home visitors, child development specialists, health/nutrition specialist, mental health specialist and mental health consultant • has a principle that states parents are a child’s first and most important teacher • focuses on building the capacities of adult caregivers to provide safe, stable and nurturing relationships and environments to promote young children’s mental health as the adults who care for the children also need to be mentally healthy. She continued by detailing the Orange/Chatham ECMH Task Force mission which is to support the social, emotional and mental health needs of children under 5 in Orange and Chatham Counties through advocacy, awareness, collaboration, collective action & evidence-based practice. She also highlighted some of the agencies that provide direct ECMH services to at- risk families in Orange County which included KidSCope and the OCHD. Lastly, Ms. Baker gave an overview of some of the barriers and gaps in ECMH which include: • limited services in other languages • not enough screening for trauma, toxic stress and early signs of mental health (MH) for children and MH screening of their caregivers/parents • MH services for adults are not accessed due to stigma, cost or being undocumented • limited transportation options for low-income families to access high quality preschool • no afterschool care (2p-5:30p) available for 4 year olds in OC school district Pre-K classrooms • more calls for more attention being paid to early childhood & public health engagement around the early childhood years Meredith Stewart, Public Health Program Manager, briefly discussed guidance for next steps. Ms. Stewart recommended that the Substance Abuse and Mental Health (SAMH) subcommittee consider facilitating conversations with the Family Success Alliance (FSA) regarding wrap- around care from 2:30-5:30 for NC Pre-K and OUTBoard/OPT and DSS regarding transportation to quality childcare. She also recommended that the SAMH review strategies to