Treating children's toxic stress at home
Stable and nurturing relationships are the cornerstone of a child’s emotional well-being and the foundation for their language and cognitive development. Scientific research shows that young children living in environments with high levels of stress—toxic stress—like maternal depression, intimate partner violence, extreme poverty, or substance abuse—can damage their young developing brains. Disrupting brain architecture at such a young age can lead to a lifetime of major problems in emotional, behavioral, mental and physical health.
Child First is an evidence-based model that uses home visits and a network of community services to prevent the devastating effects of early childhood adversity. The model aims to identify children and families with serious challenges (at the earliest possible time) and connect them to well-integrated community-based resources to help them deal with the source of the stress directly: from basic needs like food and housing to issues like depression or intimate partner violence. The program, which began in Bridgeport, Connecticut, is unique among home-visiting models because it features a skilled mental health specialist as a leading part of the team.
A randomized controlled trial showed that Child First has a significant and lasting impact on both children and families. Maternal depression goes way down. Kids behave better and are more emotionally secure. There is improvement in language development among children—a predictor of greater success later in school. These results convinced Connecticut to expand the model throughout the state, and current RWJF funding is helping with this expansion. Over the next year, Child First will also be spreading its model to other states for the first time.
"Supporting Adults to Support Young Children" describes three unique approaches (including Child First's model) to supporting young, vulnerable populations by providing direct support to parents and teachers.
Children exposed to severe stressors like maternal depression, domestic violence, extreme poverty, or substance abuse, can suffer damage to their emotional development and mental health.
Started in one Connecticut city, Child First’s evidence-based early childhood intervention model is scaling to other cities and is ready to do so in other states
"Child First is an intensive mental health intervention that takes on some of the most vulnerable kids exhibiting the most serious mental and emotional problems. This model of intensive, early child home visits and wrap-around services is showing it’s possible to shield children from the brain-damaging effects of toxic stress. With Child First, children’s behavior improves, depression reduces, and language development advances. This cooperative, family-based clinical program is moving mountains and is ready to bring their model to scale."
This trial demonstrated statistically significant and clinically effective results that Child First counteracts risk factors for emotional disturbance, developmental and learning disabilities, abuse and neglect.
Quick Facts from This Study
"Everything a child does has meaning. In very young children, what we have come to call “acting out” is really a cry for help. Serious emotional and psychological problems, developmental delays, and learning disabilities in very young children, are often linked to family stress—such as poverty and violence. We must not overlook the troublesome behavior and rush to simply “fix” it, but respond to the underlying factors that are generating it. By working with children and families in their homes, we are fostering healthy relationships between parents and children, and creating a safer and healthier overall environment for the child.”
The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) designated Child First as one of 12 home-visiting models that meet the HHS criteria for evidence-based models.
This chapter of To Improve Health and Health Care, Volume XV, focuses on Child First, a family-based intervention to prevent mental health problems in high-risk mothers and young children.
August 28, 2013 – Child First partnered to help collect school supplies for students in need at the start of the school year.
