Developmental screening

This State Health Policy Briefing is the third in a series examining the efforts of 19 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico to improve identification of children with or at risk for developmental delay. For 15 months, ending in July 2008, these states and territories worked together, with the support of NASHP and The Commonwealth Fund, to make policy and practice changes that supported primary care providers’ use of a validated developmental screening tool as part of well child care. Screening Academy members received an intensive program of technical assistance during these 15 months, including assistance to support measurement. This briefing examines the efforts of the 21 members to produce meaningful data to make the case for change, develop training targeted to primary care provider needs, and assess whether changes produced the intended effect. By the end of these 15 months:

In 2007, 19 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia came together to form the Assuring Better Child Health and Development (ABCD) Screening Academy. They worked, with the support of NASHP, to improve identification of children with or at risk for or with developmental delays. Screening Academy members worked to make both policy and practice changes to support the use of a standardized developmental screening tool as part of regular well-child care. This second in a series of state health policy briefings reports on their efforts to support practice change. Examination of their efforts found that these states used a variety of strategies to support practice change. While states vary in their approach, a consistent theme is collaboration between state agencies and primary care providers delivering preventive services.

Since 2000, the Assuring Better Child Health and Development (ABCD) Initiative has shown that states can take action to facilitate pediatric provider use of a developmental screening tool and that doing so is an important first step in improving the delivery of child development services. The Initiative's partners - NASHP and The Commonwealth Fund - have for the past 18 months conducted the ABCD Screening Academy. Participating states have been working together to identify and implement the policies and practices that move the use of standardized developmental screening tools as part of well-child care from a best practice to a standard practice. This new publication summarizes the progress of ABCD Screening Academy participating states toward policy and practice improvement during the first phase of the project.

This report is designed to assist states in assessing the effectiveness of their efforts to strengthen mental health services for very young children. The paper is an outgrowth of the work conducted by the five states involved in the ABCD II Consortium, an initiative of NASHP and The Commonwealth Fund that seeks to improve the delivery of services needed by very young children to ensure their healthy mental development. All five states needed reliable and valid measures to inform implementation efforts and ongoing program evaluation.