Stein Tikun Olam Infant-Family Mental Health Initiative

2026

The Tikun Olam Infant-Family Mental Health Initiative will sustain the clinical and training programs developed over the past ten years to ensure that infants and young children facing pediatric medical traumatic stress have access to relationship-based, trauma-informed, culturally sensitive infant-family and early childhood mental health services. The Tikun Olam Infant-Family Mental Health Initiative has a two-pronged approach: 1. Training Core builds the next generation of infant-family mental health professionals through inensive, state-of-the-art fellowship training. This includes sustaining the full-time psychology postdoctoral fellowship focused on specialty services to medicaly fragile infants and their families at CHLA; and sustain training in infant mental health principles and practices for CHLA developmental-behavioral pediatrics and child psychiatry fellows. 2. Services Core provides a continuum of mental health care for infants, young children and their families who are experiencing the highest level of pediatric medical traumatic stress. Settings for services include the following clinics/units at CHLA: High Risk Pregnancy Prenatal Services, Newborn and Infant Critical Care (NICCU), Cardiothoracic Intensive Care, CV Acute, Newborn Follow-up Program, and Behavioral Health Institute Outpatient Clinic. Finally, we propose to pilot and refine billing models that enable us to maximize insurance billing and sustain these programs long-term. Objectives and expected benefits: - Provide infant mental health training for psychology, developmental-behavioral pediatrics, and psychiatry fellows. 90% of fellows will demonstrate increased knowledge of infant-family mental health principles, as measured by knowledge assessments. 80% of fellows will demonstrate increased skills in working with infants and their families, as measured by supervisor evaluations. - Inpatient services: Provide infant-family mental health services to 200 infants and their families in the NICCU, CTICU, and CV Acute units per year. Track initiatives in the unit supported by embedded psychologists and fellows to promote attachment/bonding and reduce stress. - Prenatal services: Provide infant-family mental health services to 60 pregnant individuals in Fetal Maternal Center and Fetal Cardiology, leading to patients feeling supported during challenging medical visits, and nurses having reduced stress. - Follow-up care: Provide infant-family mental health services in the Newborn Follow-up Program to 200 infants and their families discharged from the NICCU and CTICU, resulting in parents/caregivers demonstrating increased responsiveness to their baby during clinic visits and being successfully linked with needed mental health services. - Outpatient services: Provide multidisciplinary behavioral health outpatient services including developmental-behavioral pediatrician, nurse practitioner, and psychologists, for 400 children ages 0 - 5 and their families, leading to children showing reductions in mental health symptoms and meeting their individualized goals. - Sustainable billing model: Develop model for insurance billing to sustain program over time.

Clinical Care, Early Childhood – General, Maternal Health – General, Mental/Behavioral Health – General , Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults with Special Health Care Needs, Maternal mental health; infant-family mental health; children with special

Training Trainees, Performing Direct and/or Demonstration Services, Performing Research or Evaluation, Developing & Disseminating Information

Health-Related Activities

Students/Trainees (long or intermediate trainees), Professionals and Para-Professionals, Family Members/Caregivers, Children/Adolescents with Disabilities/SHCN

Racial or Ethnic Minorities, Disadvantaged Circumstances, Limited English, Specific Groups

Single-County

N/A