Introduction to the special section: The development of infant mental health home visiting in Michigan state government.

This issue of the Infant Mental Health Journal presents the first papers from a tripartite evaluation study of state-sponsored infant mental health home visiting program in Michigan, United States. This series of studies has been led by Kate Rosenblum PhD and Maria Muzik MD, Department of Psychiatry, the University of Michigan and faculty from the Michigan Collaborative for Infant Mental Health Research for the State of Michigan, Department of Health and Human Services, Mental Health Services for Children, to fulfill the requirements of state legislation (State of Michigan Act No. 291, Public Acts of 2013) that required that all home visiting programs meet certain requirements to be established as an evidence-based practice. In this introduction, we provide a historical context for the delivery of infant mental health home visiting through the community mental health system in the state of Michigan.

Community-delivered infant-parent psychotherapy improves maternal sensitive caregiving: Evaluation of the Michigan model of infant mental health home visiting.

The current study evaluated the effectiveness of a home-based psychotherapeutic Infant Mental Health Home Visiting (IMH-HV) intervention for enhancing parenting sensitivity; a secondary aim was to evaluate whether the use of video feedback was associated with greater treatment response. Participants were N = 78 mothers and their children (age at entry ranged from prebirth to 24-month old (M = 9.8, SD = 8.4), who were initiating IMH-HV services with community mental health-based therapists (N = 51). Dyads were assessed during extended home visits via standardized interviews and observational and questionnaire methods within the first month of treatment (baseline), and again 6 and 12 months thereafter. Following each of these extended home visits, study evaluators completed a standard Q-sort to capture observations of maternal sensitivity during the visit. Therapists completed fidelity checklists used to derive the total number of IMH-HV sessions received (i.e., dosage) and frequency with which therapists provided video feedback. Results indicated a dose-response relationship between number of sessions and maternal sensitivity, and that video review with parents independently contributed to improved maternal sensitivity. Discussion focuses on the effectiveness of this community-based psychotherapeutic home visiting model for enhancing parenting, as well as the value of video feedback as a specific therapeutic strategy.

A Collaborative Process for Evaluating Infant Mental Health Home Visiting in Michigan.

This column describes an innovative collaboration in Michigan that could serve as a model for meaningful community-university-state partnerships. Recent legislation in Michigan threatened the infant mental health home visiting program, a service for Medicaid-eligible infants, toddlers, and families affected by mental illness. The University of Michigan is overseeing two major studies in collaboration with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, the Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health, the Michigan Infant Toddler Research Exchange faculty network, and community health service providers to determine the evidence base for the program and ensure its future success.

Mental health consumer parents' recommendations for designing psychoeducation interventions for their minor children.

OBJECTIVE: This research explores consumer parents' recommendations for developing psychoeducation programs for their minor children. METHOD: Data were drawn from a purposive sample of 3 focus groups of parent consumers of a community mental health agency. The research question was: "What do consumer parents recommend for developing psychoeducation programs for their minor children?" RESULTS: Parents recommended content foci of mental illness, recovery, heritability, stigma, and coping. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: The next step is youth psychoeducation intervention development and evaluation. Parents, youth, and professionals should be included in the program planning.

Implementing a statewide early childhood mental health consultation approach to preventing childcare expulsion.

State- and local-level mental health administrators and practitioners can work collaboratively to provide effective early childhood mental health consultation (ECMHC) services that address the growing need in communities to promote healthy socioemotional functioning in infants and young children and prevent longer term mental health challenges. This article describes one state's model of ECMHC, the Child Care Expulsion Prevention Program (CCEP), as well as preliminary evaluation findings on consultants' fidelity to the developed approach to service within 31 counties in Michigan. The CCEP approach is flexible, yet adheres to six cornerstones which are essential to effectively and consistently carrying out services across local projects, including the provision of relationship-based programmatic and child/family-centered consultation, hiring and supporting high-quality consultants through professional development and reflective supervision, ongoing provision of state-level technical assistance, use of evidence-based practices, and collaboration with other early childhood service providers. In addition to the overview of CCEP's approach and effectiveness, lessons learned are provided to guide those engaged in policy development, practice, and applied research pertaining to ECMHC. Abstracts translated in Spanish, French, German, and Japanese can be found on the abstract page of each article on Wiley Online Library at http://wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/imhj.

Early outcomes of a pilot psychoeducation group intervention for children of a parent with a psychiatric illness.

OBJECTIVE: This study reports early findings of a still-developing Youth Education and Support (YES) pilot intervention of multifamily group psychoeducation for youth with a parent with a psychiatric illness. METHODS: Hypotheses predicted YES participants would increase pre-to-post: 1) Knowledge of psychiatric illness and recovery, and 2) Coping. A purposive sample of 17 youth, ages 10-16, participated in six lively, activity-focused, two-hour sessions within four groups facilitated by the PI and professionals employed within two public mental health agencies. Data revealed a significant increase in pre-to-post youth-reported knowledge (p= less than .001) and no significant change in overall coping. At post-intervention, youth reported significantly increased use of the coping skills of avoiding problems and relaxing, as indicated within these coping subscales. CONCLUSIONS: Study limitations merit interpretation caution. They are useful for future research, including development and testing of youth psychoeducation programs with longer interventions, more emphases on coping, parent-inclusion, and larger samples using randomized, experimental designs. Suggestions for research, practice, and policy are provided.