Pennsylvania Recovery and Resiliency - Behavioral Health for the New Century

Adult and Juvenile Justice Alternatives to Seclusion and
Restraint Assertive Community Treatment Behavioral Health Services
for LGBTQI Individuals Community Integration Co-occurring Mental
Health/Addiction Early Childhood Mental Health Employment High Fidelity Wraparound Housing Other OMHSAS Initiatives Peer Specialist Services Psychiatric Rehabilitation Public Health School Based Behavioral Health Suicide Prevention Transition Age Youth

OMHSAS Mission/Vision/
Guiding Principles Community Support Program Child and Adolescent
Service System Program (CASSP) "A Call for Change" BDAP D&A Principles Cultural Competency

Accessing County-Based Services DPW Bulletins Conferences and Trainings Glossary Mental Health Advanced Directives Newsletters/Publications DPW Web Site Pennsylvania Network of Care

Statewide Associations National Groups

Advisory Structure BH/PH Innovations Think Tank Contact Information Objectives/Priorities OMHSAS 2010/11 Budget Planning Documents Quality Management

What's New > Children's Services

Grant from Heinz Endowments to Provide Training in Parent-Child Interaction Therapy

The Heinz Endowments recently awarded a grant to the Department of Public Welfare to begin to implement Parent-Child Interaction Therapy in Pennsylvania. Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) is an evidence-based mental health intervention that has been shown to decrease child behavior problems, improve the parent-child relationship, decrease parental stress while increasing their sense of control, and decrease the re-occurrence of or prevent child abuse. Implementing this intervention will help increase the capacity of Pennsylvania providers to serve very young children.

The grant will be implemented over a two-year period. During the first year, a nationally recognized trainer in PCIT will be contracted to provide intensive training, ongoing supervision, coaching and support to eight master’s level clinicians in four licensed mental health agencies across the Commonwealth. During the second year, eight more clinicians will be trained. Those who are trained will then be able to train an additional clinician in their agency. A Request for Applications will be issued soon to licensed mental health agencies.

This grant and the implementation of PCIT support the recommendations of the Early Childhood Mental Health Advisory Committee to identify and promote evidence-based, best practice emotional coaching programs and to ensure the availability of well-coordinated and age-appropriate interventions for young children and caretakers who need more intensive supports. The grant also supports the efforts of the Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services and the Office of Child Development and Early Learning to address the shortage of providers who are able to meet the needs of children ages birth to five.

Over the past five years, Pennsylvania has made significant progress in identifying and meeting the mental health needs of very young children and their families. Research has shown that addressing social, emotional and behavioral issues as early as possible is a cost-effective way to ensure that children are able to succeed in school and in life and to prevent more severe problems later on that require far more expensive and intrusive interventions. PCIT has been demonstrated to have positive outcomes with many children and families and is listed in the National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices.