Early Intervention and Behavioral Health

How important is early intervention? Ask a caregive of a child with mental illness and they will tell you that it is never too early. According to a 2001 report from the US Surgeon General, one in ten children and adolescents suffer from mental illness but fewer than one in five of these children are treated.

This week in Massachusetts a hearing was held on an act Improving and Expanding Behavioral Health Services for Children in the Commomwealth. The goal of this act is to reach children wherever they are and give them uniformly excellent care.

This bill would call for more early intervention, helping families quickly identify and treat a child’s mental illness. The bill asks pediatricians to screen for behavioral health problems and would require Medicaid to pay for these screenings. In addition, it would require that behavioral health consultants be provided for preschools and child-care programs.

We have already witnessed the success of early intervention through programs such as Head Start. Early detection of behavioral health issues would give these children a head start treating an illness that could possibly be with them for their whole lives.