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1st Five Healthy Mental Development Initiative

In the first five years of life, children rapidly develop the social and emotional capabilities that prepare them to be self-confident, trusting, empathetic, intellectually inquisitive, competent in using language to communicate, and capable of relating well to others.

Even very young children can develop skills that allow them to soothe themselves, share and play, and listen and follow directions.  These developments, sometimes called infant mental health, social and emotional development, or healthy mental development, include the child's ability to:

Appropriately regulate and express emotions, form close interpersonal relationships with other children and adults; and explore and learn from their environments

Lee County's 1st Five Healthy Mental Development Initiative builds partnerships between primary care practices and public service providers to enhance high quality well-child care.  1st Five promotes the use of standardized developmental tools that support healthy mental development for young children during the first five years.

By using a standardized surveillance tool for all children, that includes social/emotional development and family risk factors, providers are able to identify children at risk for developmental concerns that could otherwise play out later in life if left untreated.

1st Five collaborates with local medical practices to enhance patient care by:

Promoting primary care provider use of validated screening tools to assess social and emotional development and family risk factors, helping providers integrate these tools into their practices, and linking children and families to community resources to improve access to appropriate follow-up care.

Community Resource Listing

The resources below are for the 1st Five Collaborative Service Areas 13/14 that cover Des Moines, Henry, Lee, Louisa, Muscatine, Washington, and Cedar Counties.  These resources are from a variety of organizations that focus on child development and community service needs.  Please click on the county you are wanting, and feel free to print out.

Des Moines

Henry

Lee

Louisa

Muscatine

Washington

Cedar

Resouce pages will be updated periodically.

For more information contact:

Tessa Schroeder, 1st Five HMDI Site Coordinator

[email protected]

Lee County Health Department

P: (319) 372-5225  F: (844) 296-0282