Iowa's 1st Five Initiative: improving early childhood developmental services through public-private partnerships

The Iowa Department of Public Health's 1st Five Healthy Mental Development Initiative is bridging public and private health care systems to improve early detection of social-emotional delays and prevention of mental health problems among young children and their families. Key features of the 1st Five model include: user-friendly mental and developmental health screening and referral forms; ongoing education and support for medical office staff on healthy development and use of screening and referral tools; specially trained care coordinators to identify and address a wide range of children's and families' needs; relationships with community resources that provide early intervention; and timely notification of outcomes to the referring physician offices. With an evaluation under way, early 1st Five experience indicates that families identified through the program have a range of unmet needs: each physician referral results in an average of three to five follow-up referrals for services.