November 1, 2006

Young Minds Matter

Summit addresses the state of early childhood mental health issues in Massachusetts

BOSTON – Today, Commissioners of Massachusetts Departments of Education, Mental Health and Early Education and Care will join national experts, policymakers, pediatricians, mental health professionals, and early care and education providers at Young Minds Matter, a summit to address the social and emotional wellbeing of children, birth to age five. Hosted by United Way of Massachusetts Bay and the Schott Foundation, the Summit aims to move Massachusetts toward better screening processes for young children’s mental health issues, enhanced professional training in areas of early childhood development and more creative strategies to fund services not covered by insurance.

Research on brain development shows the first three years of life are critical to children’s eventual social and emotional capacities. Environments and early relationships affect a child’s mental health, and can, if negative, impede his or her ability to grow and learn. It could also lead to a more extreme consequence – expulsion from a pre-K setting. A study by Yale researchers in May 2005 revealed that nationally, pre-K students are expelled at higher rates that those of children in grades K-12. The study, led by Walter S. Gilliam for the Foundation for Child Development, found that Massachusetts ’ pre-K expulsion rate ranks 9 th highest among the 40 states surveyed.

To respond to children in need of social and emotional support and to better support their families, state agencies have made t he development of a more coordinated system of care for these issues a top priority. Young Minds Matter will focus on services and policies that will ensure positive outcomes for children across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts .

The event will feature keynote speaker Jane Knitzer, director of the National Center for Children in Poverty. Dr. Knitzer is a psychologist whose career has been spent in policy research and analysis of issues affecting children and families, including mental health, child welfare, and education policy. Her work on children’s mental health includes the ground-breaking policy report, Unclaimed Children: The Failure of Public Responsibility to Children and Adolescents in Need of Mental Health Services.