Developmental and Behavioral Health Services for Children: Opportunities and Challenges for Proposition 10. Building Community Systems for Young Children.

As part of a series of reports designed to support the implementation of Proposition 10: The California Children and Families Act and to provide comprehensive and authoritative information on critical issues concerning young children and families in California, this report examines how child health services can be improved to support two related goals of Proposition 10: (1) to improve the health and development all children; and (2) to ensure that children enter school ready to learn. The focus of the report is on opportunities to improve the content and quality of primary health care supervision by providing essential developmental services for infants and young children designed to promote their optimal development. The report reviews the recommendations for delivery of developmental, behavioral, and psychosocial services in current, widely implemented health supervision guidelines for children and examines the current research evidence supporting their effectiveness. The report also examines what is known about the extent to which these developmental services are currently provided and discusses related barriers to that provision. The report concludes with specific recommendations for expanding the provision of developmental services by health care providers, including strategies for improving service delivery in office settings, and suggestions for relevant system changes to integrate health care services with other services in the community. The report's two appendices include tables and figures for the report and describe best practice models. (Contains 38 references.) (KB)