2021 was a year of firsts for families and children in Guilford County. The year prior, Nurse-Family Partnership and Child First had merged nationally to better meet the needs of families – spanning prenatal health, early childhood development and mental health for mom, child and the entire family. As a two-generation, home-based and evidence-based mental health model coming from an established organization, Child First was a natural fit for Ready for School, Ready for Life (Ready Ready).
“We felt that Child First could be a game changer for vulnerable children and families in our area,” commented Ready Ready Director of Analytics and Insights, Christina Dobson. “After getting key community feedback from entities like the Department of Social Services who see families cycle through trauma and crisis and from families themselves who expressed a desire for this type of in-home mental health support, we felt confident that we wanted to find partners to implement Child First locally,” continued Dobson.
Enter Family Solutions into this story of success. Family Solutions is a growing private counseling agency serving Guilford and surrounding counties. Using measurable, research-based approaches in their work with children and families is a guiding value for their practice, so the Child First program was a natural fit. “The pattern that we were seeing repeated with vulnerable children was that in the course of delivering child mental health services, especially in our mental health consultation in child care settings, we could only work with the child. It was difficult to get caregivers involved,” said Anita Faulkner, co-owner of Family Solutions. “We were missing the total picture of what the child was experiencing when we were only able to serve the child through our outpatient services. Child First was an opportunity to help families more holistically with an evidence-based approach.”
After receiving seed funding from the Duke Endowment, with implementation monitoring overseen by Ready Ready, Family Solutions is in the middle of its third year administering the Child First approach to fidelity. So far, they have served around 200 families with this powerful two-generation approach to child and family mental health. Referrals come from pediatric offices through the HealthySteps program (Children’s Home Society), DSS, and other local non-profits/agencies. Often families are experiencing hardships such as housing instability, maternal substance use or post-partum depression, food insecurity, exposure to violence or overdose, and incarcerations. In most cases, families are working and sometimes children are in kinship care with relatives.
Child First allows a paired team of a clinician and family resource partner to spend a year on average with vulnerable children (ages 0-5) and their caregivers, providing psychotherapy to parents and children together in their homes, and connecting them with the services they need to make healthy child development possible. The first five years of a child’s life are critical years for an intervention like Child First. Early experiences and relationships play a vital role in shaping brain development, laying the groundwork for emotional and physical health, learning, and long-term success. Yet, many parents face overwhelming challenges at the very time their children need stability and support the most. Growing up in stressful environments—marked by violence, neglect, or untreated mental health issues—can disrupt healthy brain development, with lasting impacts on a child’s health and ability to thrive.
One of the best parts of the Child First story in Guilford County and in the six other states where it is operating is that assessments show that it is incredibly effective. Locally, 80% of families showed improvement in at least one area of identified concern. National data cites information such as a 64% decrease in depression or mental health problems in mothers, a 64% decrease in language problems in children, and a 42% decrease in aggressive and defiant behaviors in children receiving the Child First intervention.
“We know that supports that help families form strong, nurturing relationships that protect children from the effects of trauma and stress are critical for school readiness,” commented Ready Ready CEO, Teshanda Middleton. “Getting Child First in Guilford County took the commitment of funders, agencies like DSS, and a truly excellent provider in Family Solutions. It’s these kind of success stories that Ready Ready is working to accelerate locally so that more children can be on track to read on time and that will ultimately dramatically improve outcomes for families, for schools, for communities, and our entire workforce,” continued Middleton.
