HealthySteps (HS) is an evidence-based integrated model designed to provide enhanced primary care services to young children and families. This article describes the strategies HS specialists use, adapt, and innovate while maintaining fidelity to the model to meet the unique needs of diverse settings, circumstances, and communities. The authors…

Early relational health (ERH) is not a new field, but an enhanced focus on knowledge from infant and early childhood mental health (IECMH), neurodevelopment, and related fields. ERH brings attention to the centrality of safe, stable, and nurturing relationships and resilient communities as drivers for current and future health and well-being of…

Early identification of developmental delays and disabilities (DDs) is a key component of well-child visits. Recommendations for assessing children's development during these visits continue to evolve. For almost a century, developmental milestones have been used to identify children with atypical development. More recently, the American Academy…

Primary care is an essential service for young children and one of the few settings where in-person care was provided during COVID-19 (recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics, 2020). The HealthySteps (HS) model provides enhanced primary care to young children but required innovations to service delivery to adhere to public health orders…

To understand the broader societal context for supporting the healthy development and well-being of infants and toddlers, the following excerpt from the "State of Babies Yearbook: 2022 Executive Summary" presents key findings on the status of America's families with young children. As of August 2022, the reconciliation bill proposed in…

In this article, the authors describe a 3-year initiative in New York state, led by the New York Center for Child Development (NYCCD), through which more than 2,500 mental health clinicians were trained in the DC:0-5. Funding was provided through the creative use of the Preschool Development, Birth to Five federally funded Block Grant, and…

DC:0-5™: Diagnostic Classification of Mental Health and Developmental Disorders of Infancy and Early Childhood (ZERO TO THREE, 2016) emphasizes the centrality of relationships for young children's development and psychopathology. The authors share the story of a young child and his mother to illustrate the use of DC:0-5, with an emphasis on how…

In the spring of 2020, the emerging COVID-19 pandemic prompted states across the country to mandate that most early childhood education programs close, leaving families with young children scrambling to adapt to full-time caregiving and leaving educators uncertain of their economic and professional future. For many communities, this hardship was…

Pediatric complex care clinics offer an optimal environment for integrated behavioral health services for infants and young children with medical complexity (CMC). Integrated behavioral health providers are well positioned to provide accessible care and promote development and well-being for this population with unique psychosocial needs and…

All children need access to equitable opportunities for developmental screening. The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in gaps in well-child visits, and greater inequities in overall health. Young children who show signs of a delay or disability need effective screening practices so that prevention and/or early intervention can begin as soon as…

Infant and early childhood mental health (IECMH) consultation has gained increasing attention over the years as an effective approach to supporting young children's social-emotional development (Brennan et al., 2008; Hepburn et al., 2013). The current syndemic (the aggregation of two or more concurrent epidemics that interact synergistically to…

The Tennessee First Five Training Institute (TFFTI) is a workforce development project to build infant and early childhood mental health (IECMH) capacity across Tennessee's community mental health agencies. TFFTI focused on foundational trainings in IECMH concepts, training in child-parent psychotherapy, dyadic, trauma treatment for children birth…

As the infant and early childhood mental health (IECMH)-informed workforce adapted to the unexpected and challenging events brought on by COVID-19, associations for infant mental health (AIMHs), whose primary role is to support the workforce, stepped up and offered what very few organizations could during the onset of the pandemic: opportunities…

This article explores the many ways in which states can and are addressing racial equity in problem solving and policymaking. The authors explore national data that make the case for addressing bias and advancing equity in state policy; share strategies and best practices for engaging families and communities; and provide examples of policies that…