SCCMHA hosts meeting to develop Early Childhood Court Program in Saginaw County
The Albert & Woods Professional Development & Business Center for the Saginaw County Community Mental Health Authority (SCCMHA) played host to a meeting of the teams involved in the launch of Saginaw County’s Early Childhood Court Program on Thursday, Sept. 26.
The Exploration Inventory was the first of a series of meetings held to discuss and learn more about the evidence based ZERO TO THREE Safe Babies model.
This first meeting, facilitated by Safe Babies Training and Technical Assistance Specialist, Andria Peek, invited clinicians and case workers from SCCMHA, as well as representation from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, officials from the Saginaw County court system, and many other community partners.
Attendees learned more about the Safe Babies model and participated in Q&As and team building to encourage collaboration between all the agencies, along with identifying strengths of the current systems and opportunities to enhance services.
The next meeting of Saginaw County’s Early Childhood Court and providers will highlight a report compiling the information gathered in the Exploration Inventory and ensuring its accuracy, then another meeting will follow to begin “case mapping.”
In case mapping, the team will work together to develop a plan for how potential Early Childhood Court cases will be identified and the process of participating in this specialty court program. The goal of this meeting is to maintain fidelity to the model while also individualizing it to the Saginaw County population.
Following these meetings, the Early Childhood Courts program of Saginaw County will be close to ready for launch, however no date has been decided for implementation of the program yet.
Saginaw County and St. Clair County were both selected for expansion of the Early Childhood Court program, established by the MDHHS and made possible by a grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).
The focus of the Early Childhood Court is to provide services to families with children ages 0 – 3 years who have become involved in the child welfare system. The goal is to increase the likelihood of reunification between children and parents and reduce the potential for reentry in the child welfare system and foster care. Families will be working with an Infant Mental Health therapist through SCCMHA – an essential part of the Early Childhood Court team. The IMH therapist will assist parents and their babies in developing secure attachments and assist parents in improving their parenting abilities and overall family relationships. Families will also be connected to other treatment providers and community resources based on the individual needs of the family and its members.