This Newsletter is focused on the topic of Mental Health. Thanks to the Regional Coordinating Council members for their suggestions and all who contributed materials, and to Steffen Saifer who acted as editor.

Staff Openings: We are still accepting applications for the vacancies in the Western Washington area for Grantee Support Specialists for both the QC and the QCDS. Call the office and request an announcement or ask your Director for a copy if you or someone you know might be interested.

ONLINE CLASSES
We are delighted that 56 staff from all four states are enrolled in the Online class in Numeracy taught by Steffen Saifer. This class will be offered again, probably in the fall. Not only are the students learning, we also are learning about the joys and challenges of offering courses totally online. Western Washington University continues to offer their courses online; see their ad in later pages.

The June edition of the Newsletter will be focused on Outcomes. If you have particular concerns or questions you would like us to address, please email me with them: olmstedc@pdx.edu

Regional Office News:

The Regional Office has added a new staff member, Anne Sneed. She will be the Child-Care Specialist for the ACF regional office as well as a project officer for one grantee. Before coming to Seattle, she worked as a project officer with the American Indian Head Start Regional office and the Administration on Native Americans. Also new in the Region is Dr Theresa (Terry) Elofson, Senior Early Head Start Associate hired by the National Early Head Start T/TA Center at Zero to Three and outstationed at the Regional Office. Her assignment is a four year contract with the primary responsibility to support federal staff capacity in the area of early childhood development.

You can reach Anne and Terry at 206-625-2557: Terry is at extension 3107 and Anne is at extension 3076.

The Circle of Security Project
By Kent Hoffman, Bert Powell, and Glen Cooper
Back to Top

"Successful parenting is a principal key to the mental health of the next generation."
- John Bowlby, MD

Dana is the nineteen-year old mother of two-year old Ricky. With a history of repeated neglect and abuse in her own background, this young caregiver has often found herself overwhelmed by the demands of parenting a young child. Until recently, Ricky had been showing the troubling signs of aggression and disruption with other children in his Head Start classroom, so much so that the staff had come to think of him as a significant behavior problem. Indeed, both mother and child had been assessed as having a "disorganized" attachment-caregiving bond: a classification that predicts significant emotional, cognitive, and social difficulties throughout life.

Fortunately, Dana and Ricky have, for the past nineteen weeks, been enrolled in The Circle of Security Project, an innovative early intervention program in Spokane County Head Start/ECEAP/Early Head Start, designed to support and alter the developmental pathway of at-risk parents and their young children. In a supportive group context, Dana and five other mothers have been participating in interventions designed to enhance specific behaviors that build security in their children. Every Wednesday this group of mothers gathers for an hour and fifteen minutes to observe video-taped interactions between themselves and their children. Each week the group leader focuses upon one mother, sensitively placing emphasis upon both strengths and limitations in her caregiving approach.

"If I didn't see it here on the TV screen, I wouldn't believe I did that," exclaims Dana as she begins to reflect upon how she fearfully shrinks away from Ricky when he gets angry, and abdicates her executive position as the parent. "I guess that would make him feel pretty alone and insecure." Several other mothers nod in agreement, recognizing similarities in how they relate to their children. Dana commits to trying another approach, one of being both firm and kind, as she takes charge of a young child desperately in need of a solid and secure caregiving environment.

In any child's life, the years from birth to four or five are a crucial period during which a firm foundation is laid for healthy development. Attachment research has confirmed that children who are securely attached enjoy more happiness with their parents, turn to their parents for help when in trouble, show less anger with peers, have higher self-esteem, and an increased capacity for empathy, trust and self-reliance.

The innovative program described above in which Dana is now learning to support a secure attachment with her son is currently being developed by Marycliff Institute and the University of Virginia, in collaboration with Spokane County Head Start/ECEAP/Early Head Start. The emphasis is providing an individualized intervention approach based on the specific parent-child's pattern of attachment. The goals of this three-year project are to: 1) develop a model to work with Head Start/Early Head Start families on improving the parent-child relationship; 2) provide valuable research on the long term effectiveness of this model; and 3) develop a model that could be utilized by Head Start/Early Head Start personnel on a wider regional and national basis.

Utilizing over thirty years of attachment research, The Circle of Security Project is a unique approach that individualizes interventions for the parents and children, based upon each specific attachment-caregiving bond. The effectiveness of this approach is being evaluated by standardized, pre- and post-intervention testing procedures. The first year results show the following statistically significant changes:

• The number of parents classified as providing secure caregiving toward their children increased from 12% to 60%;
• Parents classified "disordered" in their caregiving [the category associated with increased psychopathology, poor educational performance, and elevated criminal activity, substance abuse, and child abuse] decreased from 60% to 13%, while parents who were classified "ordered" increased from 40% to 87%;
• Children who were disordered in their attachment to their parent decreased from 54% to 20%, while children who were ordered in their attachment increased from 46% to 80%;
• 78% of parents who were disordered changed to an ordered pattern.

It is now one month later, and Dana is once again in the group, looking at a video made in the past week. She smiles broadly as she reports that Ricky has been behaving in an entirely different fashion these days. His tantrums have almost disappeared and his need to control her every move has greatly diminished. As the group looks on, the video reveals a moment when Dana asks her son to pick up a book that he has thrown across the couch. This time her voice is clear, firm and sustained. Ricky hesitates for a brief second, then quickly reaches over to retrieve the book. Their eyes meet and, at once, both parent and child begin to laugh. A new sense of order has been established. And with it, a fresh sense of delight and security has begun to be shared between them.

Taking the Mystique Out of Mental Health
By Chuck Smith
Back to Top

"Mental health is everyone's business." Many of us will agree with this statement as it relates to our work and personal lives. However, at some level of involvement on this subject most of us become somewhat mystified about the causes (genetics, bio-chemical, psychological, environmental) and treatment (therapy, medication, support). For purposes of this article, I will use the term "mental health problems" to refer to the range of difficulties related to distorted perceptions of the self and the environment and a significant impairment in daily functioning. Some of these difficulties may be severe enough to meet the diagnostic criteria for one or more disorders in the Diagnostic Statistical Manual IV (DSM-IV). What follows are some ideas to help take the mystique out of mental health and illustrate the important role that each of us plays (or can play) in promoting good mental health.

Nature Vs Nurture
Many of us take on secondary roles as teachers, social service workers, or support staff when a participant (child or parent) is identified as having a mental health problem. In part, our inclination to refer these matters to the "experts" is based on the evidence of bio-chemical and genetic factors contributing to mental disorders - especially affective disorders like depression, bi-polar disorder, schizophrenia. The growing use of medications to treat these difficulties, further takes mental health out of our realm.

However, there is clear evidence that environmental factors affect the mental health of children, even in families where parents have mental health difficulties (see articles in Abosh and Collins, 1996 and Parens and Kramer, 1993). Consider these factors that contribute to mental health difficulties:

• Lack of adequate external support systems
• Poor socio-economic status
• Neglect
• Inconsistency in the caretaking environment
• Depleted resources and support within the family

Now consider that the major goals of Head Start are to promote the social, emotional, cognitive, and physical development of children and support parents as advocates for their children and their families. Each person in Head Start plays a role in achieving the goals of the program, and these goals specifically work to prevent and overcome inadequate social support, poverty, neglect, inconsistent care, and family instability. Our work in achieving these goals plays a clear and extremely valuable role in promoting good mental health and in mitigating the effects of mental health difficulties.

Promoting Growth
Head Start is in the business of child and family development. When we promote and support growth for children and parents we are making a difference in the mental health of others. Working with parents as they help their children grow and develop is a fundamental strategy used in the Head Start program. Similarly, Henri Parens discusses the importance of "preventing experience-derived emotional disorders" by working on improving parenting interactions through parent education and parent-child experiences (Parens and Kramer, 1993). Developing trusting relationships, delivering gentle feedback, and providing opportunities for growth-producing experiences are three powerful actions that are available to most staff. Effectively engaging in these actions, helps promote good mental health and contributes to alleviating difficulties.

Effective Responses
The key to taking the mystique out of mental health is recognizing that the principles that promote and support good mental health are just as applicable when responding to people experiencing mental health difficulties. The idea of developmentally appropriate practice can be extended beyond the educational setting and serve as a prompt to pay attention to the developmental needs of the person(s) in any given situation. By also "individualizing", we can look at people's behavior relative to typical development and make adjustments in our expectations and responses based on a more personalized understanding of developmental needs. For example, using Erikson's concepts about developmental stages, we may expect a 24-year-old parent to be making choices with an eye on major life choices regarding careers and intimate relationships (What am I going to do? Who will I be with?). We would then affirm and encourage this individual to evaluate decisions closely in regard to her life goals. However, if this person is experiencing depression (one of the most common mental health problems) then the above strategies may need to be augmented with a greater emphasis on helping the person become active in pursuing goals and connecting with people.

Even with mental health difficulties that have a bio-chemical or genetic foundation, the role of cognition and experiences is very important. People experiencing mental health problems have difficulty with accurately perceiving their world and effectively responding to it (including their "inner" world). However, each of us has this kind of difficulty at times, to lesser degrees. Consistency and continuity in providing acceptance, love, respect, structure, and space for separation are vital in effectively supporting development and growth. We want to create environments that provide enough security, stimulation and challenge without being excessive. With children, we believe these experiences to be powerful and enduring on behavior as well as brain development. These principles are just as valid for adults. Children with mental health difficulties often require more experiences of consistent security and appropriate stimulation in order to alter distorted perceptions and ineffective coping skills. Our belief that an adult should be more trusting by now or know how to act in a situation is not a sufficient basis for abandoning these principles.

We also need to be aware of the impact of our own expectations as parents/family members and service providers. There is a corrective element involved in providing help to someone with mental health difficulties. Often this requires us to assert more persistence, more patience, more attention, more structure, more feedback, more acceptance, more contingency planning, more planning, more, more, more, . . . How often do we prepare others (parents, family members) and ourselves for the "more" that will likely be required? The expectation of normal progress is a major obstacle to effectively helping people experiencing mental health problems. We spend time helping people learn age-appropriate expectations. It will take more time and attention to go further and individualize this learning when a family member is functioning differently than expected. Telling is not learning. Helpers have to learn how to deal with their unrealistic expectations, learn to slow down, learn how to anticipate and prepare for atypical behaviors, learn how to maintain their sense of perspective, and learn how to take care of themselves.

The Mystique Unveiled
The discovery of bio-chemical and genetic contributors to mental health problems challenges us to maintain our recognition of the power that the environment plays in preventing and alleviating these difficulties. In fact, our work in Head Start is specifically directed at promoting good mental health. Each of us is involved in promoting the healthy development of children and families. When we prepare ourselves to individualize our responses to meet the developmental needs
of children and adults, and do this with consistency and thoughtfulness, we are, in fact, promoting good mental health. Our daily interactions carry potential power for growth and healing that can be realized when intentionally applied. There is
no mystique, just persistent work. ]

References
Abosh, Beverly, and April Collins Eds., Mental Illness in the Family: Issues and Trends. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996.

Parens, Henri, and Selma Kramer Eds., Prevention in Mental Health. Northvale NJ: Jason Aronson Inc., 1993.

Soukup, James E. Understanding and Living with People Who Are Mentally Ill: Techniques to Deal with Mental Illness in the Family. Springfield IL: Charles C Thomas, 1995

Supporting Staff Mental Health & Wellness
By Leslie Keller
Back to Top

Jeree Pawl's "Golden Rule": "Do unto others as you would have others do unto others", seems to be the basis of the parallel process that occurs as we go about the sometimes difficult and challenging work in the Head Start community. As direct service providers we are sometimes the holders of sensitive and complex information that comes to us from our work with families. Staff's own feelings and behaviors have a major impact on the work they do. For these reasons it is important to integrate a mental health/wellness point of view in the way we support staff. How we are is as important as what we do. Once we start using a mental health/wellness lens we can recognize and be more aware of staff's mental health needs. Favorable social and emotional support is essential for productive functioning at work.

Here are some ideas for integrating a mental health/wellness perspective for the staff in your program:

• Provide a variety of venues to share, debrief and problem-solve with other staff and team members
• Schedule and keep regular supervision
• Have an attitude that we are in this together and that you are not expected to figure this out alone.
• Get and use an employee assistance plan
• Support wellness groups and activities
• Contract with a mental health professional who can work with staff on building healthy professional relationships
• Make "taking care of yourself" a core value of your program.

WE MAKE IT EASY!
Training for Head Start and Early Childhood Employees Over the Internet

Western Washington University's Woodring College of Education offers a series of classes specifically developed for the Head Start and Early Childhood employee. Family services and birth to three classes are offered in a continuing six-quarter series and can be completed in any sequence. Classes are two credits each and are delivered through the Human Services Cybersite.

• All course work completed over the Internet.
• Take classes in the privacy of your home or office.
• Credits can apply to Woodring's B.A. in Human Services (Program offered on line).
• Flexible schedule - Access classes any time of the day or night.
• Work in teams.
• Course work meets academic criteria addressed in the Washington State Early Childhood Career Development Core competencies and the Child Development Associate (CDA) National Credentialing Program.

Spring classes begin March 27th and include:

HS 417D: Case Management

HS 430B: Issues and Concepts

Call us today for more information at: 1-360-650-3308
E-mail us at: Professional.Development@wwu.edu or
Visit our website at: http://www.wce.wwu.edu/depts/hs

Mental Health Related Research Projects in Region X
By Steffen Saifer
Back to Top

Early Screening Inventory: Head Start/National Institutes of Mental Health
There are 5 projects nationwide funded jointly by Head Start and NIMH and one in Oregon centered at the University of Oregon in Eugene. They are seeking to refine the well-regarded behavioral screening instrument, the ESP, to assure cross-cultural validity. Hill Walker and Ed Feil are the contact people - 541-346-2295;efeil@darkwing.uoregon.edu

Circle of Security Project - Head Start/National Institutes of Mental Health
This project is being conducted at Spokane County Head Start/ECEAP with researchers from the University of Virginia and The Mary Cliff Institute. It is described in more detail on page two of this newsletter. The contact person is Jim Loudermilk at 509-533-8544 or jloudermilk@headstart.spokane.cc.wa.us

Project SUCCEED in Head Start: Office of Special Education Programs, US. Dept of Education
Housed in Salem, OR at Community Action Head Start, this research demonstration project provides parent and staff training on helping children with challenging behaviors. The curriculum was developed under the leadership of Melina Tomson (503-581-1152; tomsonm@mwvcaa.com) by a team of staff and parents, and is delivered by a staff and parent team, to groups of staff and parents together. Also included is work on increasing community mental health agencies' efficacy and helping transition children into Kindergarten. This is a joint 4 year project of the Early Childhood Training Center (of Extended Studies) and the Regional Research Institute (of the Graduate School of Social Work) at Portland State University. Steffen Saifer is the contact person - 503-725-4815; saifers@pdx.edu

Social Competence Project: Office of Special Education Programs, US. Dept of Education
Housed at Teaching Research, Western Oregon University, Monmouth, OR. This research demonstration project will develop a community-based model for early identification and intervention for children with emotional/behavior problems. It will assist teachers to screen (using the ESP) and to implement an intervention that integrates behavior support plans, social skills training, and parent education (home visits). Oregon only. Torry Tiazza Templeman, is the principal investigator and the director is Tom Udell (503-838-8391; udellt@wou.edu).

Working With Challenging Behaviors- Region X Head Start Branch
Another project to assist Head Start programs help children with challenging behaviors is being developed by Jennifer Olson, Julie Fodor and, Lee Parks at the University of Idaho (208-885-3588; Jenn@uidaho.edu). Funded by the Region X Head Start Branch, "Working With Challenging Behaviors" is Module 4 in the Building Effective & Successful Teams Series. This consists of a self-guided training manual (7 chapters) that teams of staff people undertake over a period of 4-6 months. It includes exercises to apply information to the classroom. Consultants periodically make site visits and work with the teams. They are careful to include local resources, such as mental health consultants, to assist in the effort. It is currently being field tested with 18 teams in 4 Head Start programs and will available for larger distribution this August. Continuing Ed Units or University Credits will be available.

The Family that Fights Together: The Impact of Violence on Child Development
By Susan Leschinski

Some children would be better off being born a puppy. A puppy at the Oregon Humane Society in Portland is not placed until the family has met with a counselor who explains the needs of puppies. If the puppy is very young, the family must certify that someone will be home during the day to care for the puppy - at least half time until the puppy is house broken. Payment is made up front for the puppy's shots. An outside fence contained area must be provided. And finally, the family and puppy will be visited at home by humane society to check these safeguards.

Wouldn't it be nice if babies had at least these safeguards? While most babies are born into loving, nurturing homes, far too many are born into environments where violence is the norm. In America:

• Gunfire killed 4643 infants, children, and teens in 1996
• In 1996, 134 children were killed with guns before their 10th birthday
• In 1996, over 1 million children were confirmed abused or neglected
• 520,000 children were in foster care in 1998, a 30% increase from 1990

Children act based on what they live. In one study, 96 percent of homicidal children came from chaotic family backgrounds, including family violence. Ninety percent were abused as children by family members. One hundred percent had school problems, including failing at least one grade. Seventy-six percent had documented learning disabilities. Many impulsively violent children had subtle neurological anomalies as babies. They had challenging temperaments and early signs of attention disorders that led to more serious behavior disorders.

In contrast, babies who are encouraged and supported by parents and caregivers to explore their world, score higher on cognitive and language tests. The power of a brain grows in direct relationship to the number of connections (synapses) contained within. During early brain development, many more connections are formed than the baby can ever use. Which connections survive, and what a brain can and cannot do depend on what a child experiences early in life.

Children exposed to repetitive terror develop a chronic fear response. The baby may cry in order to receive help from a caregiver. If help does not come, or if the caregiver is the source of the terror, the child moves into one of two states. The child might become more aroused with flailing arms and legs and crying, or the child might shut down. Later, the child will turn to these coping behaviors, even in situations that pose no real threat. The behaviors that the baby adopted for protection do not serve him well as a young child. Moreover, these responses produce chemicals in the brain, which actually alter the brain's chemistry. Most often, these chemicals can actually destroy synapses; especially those involved in reading emotional responses in other people. There is some evidence that these chemical changes in an individual baby's brain may be encoded in the genes and then passed on to new generations!

When working with families, it is important to help them understand how crucial it is that they provide loving, nurturing, stimulating environments and activities. Babies cannot be loved too much, held too often, or played with too early. Reading to children (beginning shortly after birth) is not just a fad, it helps build synapses. Reading builds the relationship between child and parent. Talking and singing to babies help them make sense of communication, and also build relationships. No activity can build synapses like loving one-on-one, face-to-face activities between child and parent. What the baby learns in these early years will stay with her for life!

Resources:
Children's Defense Fund. The State of America's Children Yearbook. (1999)

Karr-Morse, Robin. Ghosts from the Nursery: Tracing the Roots of Violence. Atlantic Monthly Press (1997).

Supporting Families of Children With Disabilities:
Understanding Grief As Part of a Parent's Experience
By Ginger Fink
Back to Top

Head Start programs have long enjoyed a deep commitment to parents and other family members of the children in our programs. Our commitment is no less strong to the families who parent children with disabilities. We share hopes and dreams for their child, but we may not always fully understand why some parents may seem to refuse our overtures, be reluctant to face what seems to be a clear and appropriate diagnosis or course of action, or attend meetings to plan services. In addition, some parents may appear energetic and capable one week and distracted and discouraged the next. In order to increase our ability to be successful in our efforts to nurture families, it's helpful to look at the event of disability in a child as a serious and long lasting emotional event - the event of loss and grieving.

When parents are expecting a baby, the visions are for a healthy infant with "all ten fingers and toes". Parents talk about their plans; how a little boy will grow up to be handsome and play ball, or how beautiful a little girl will be. Hardly ever are parents prepared for the devastating news that their child has a serious handicapping condition. The idea of the hoped-for perfect baby has to die, and the visions and dreams of what parenting this perfect baby would be must also die. Now parents must confront the task of looking forward to life in an entirely different way, not having wished this event, not knowing much about resources, and not being able to get the perfect baby back. Life has changed forever.

In his work with parents, Ken Moses describes the feeling states of grief, which include denial, anxiety, guilt, anger, and depression. These feelings follow no particular order, though denial and anxiety are often the first, with the others clustering together. These states are normal, and serve specific functions. For example, the emotional state of denial is necessary to allow a parent to summon the internal and external resources required to chart a parenting course with this child. The state of anxiety facilitates the process of restructuring attitudes about a parent's responsibility. If a parent were not anxious, there might be an even more serious concern for the parent's responses.

Guilt can be disconcerting, distressing parents as well as those who attempt to support them. In some cases, parents do, in fact, know that some action on their part may have contributed to the child's condition. In others, parents may imagine that some attitude or action may have caused the disability, and assume the burden of guilt. In either case, the person's basic belief system is challenged. Do bad things happen only to bad people, or do bad things happen to good people too? Am I being punished for thinking sinful thoughts? Where do my belief systems fit in this event?

Depression and anger also serve functions. Depression can help a parent re-create a sense of competence when every other internal message is seemingly one of incompetence. Anger can help a person review and rebuild a sense of justice. After all, at whom is this anger directed? The child? The hospital? Is this God's cruel doing?

When working with parents whose children have disabilities, it is useful for us to be aware that any one of these feelings may be present. Or, on a good day, a parent may be feeling competent and hopeful, and you may assume that some "breakthrough" may have been achieved. That seemingly competent parent, however, may slip once again into depression at the sight of a healthy child doing something her own child may never achieve.

Often, as parents are negotiating these feelings, they are also negotiating appointments, therapies, and other uninvited events that have come into their lives. Their relationships with other family members may be strained. Additional responsibilities may contribute to physical exhaustion. Add to these new pressures the additional "culture" of our Early Intervention or Early Childhood Special Education system with it's language of acronyms. We often expect parents to engage in this system right away, and to participate in IFSP meetings with enthusiasm. Our own assumptions and time lines may actually be contributing to a parent's sense of incompetence and confusion.

Parents need our patience, our understanding, and our ability and willingness to listen and be there for them. They do not need our judgements. With an attitude of professional caring support, we can be more appropriate in our interactions with parents, strengthen them as they grow into their parenting role, and enhance their own sense of themselves. After all, that is what Head Start is all about, for all children and families.

Sources:
The Early Intervention Training Project Manual: A Workbook For Service Providers of Families With Children Birth To Three: Loretta Murin and Philomene Haviland, eds.. National Center For Disabilities Services, 1998
"On Chronic Sorrow" Hydrocephalus Association Newsletter, Spring 1998

"Parental Reactions to Having a Child With Disabilities", Donna D. Wittert, RN, MSN
Nursing Spectrum: Career Fitness Online: http://nsweb.nursingspectrum.com/ce/ce181.htm

"The Parent's Struggle" Ken Moses, Ph. D. Family Consultant Training, 1989

WICAP Head Start Mental Wellness: It's Working!
By Barbara Baldwin & Mary Gauthier

This year we implemented a new plan to create a more viable approach to mental wellness. It is a plan we continue to revise and refine. A mental health screening tool was provided to us through mental health professionals. It is a two page screening which is administered to each child individually by the education staff near the time of enrollment. We have also contracted with a qualified mental health professional as a consultant this year. DeeAnn Smith is not only a licensed counselor, but has a background in diagnosing disabilities, is bilingual, and has worked previously with other Head Start programs. She is discounting her services from $100 per hour to $30 per hour and giving us in-kind for the difference. We are fortunate to have found her!

WICAP Head Start services a large area- 8 counties in western Idaho with 451 children. DeeAnn visits each of our centers twice a month at which time she is available to staff and parents for consultation. The staff is able to talk to her in confidence and discuss concerns. We consider her a third set of trained eyes to assist the education staff in identifying special needs. DeeAnn assists many teachers in writing intervention plans for children and advising classroom strategies. Her involvement has made the entire referral process run more smoothly. Since her counseling service accepts medical cards, she is able to provide some services to individual children and bill Medicaid.

Another resource we have tapped for mental health this year is our EAP through our medical insurance plan. They provide free counseling service and on-site workshops to staff as well as any person living in the home of the staff, whether insured or not. We at WICAP feel fortunate to have found such wonderful resources to help us to implement and refine our new mental wellness plan.

Mental Health Resources for Region X States
Compiled by Polly Taylor

Idaho

State Mental Health Agency
Department of Health and Welfare
Bureau of Mental Health & Substance Abuse
Division of Family and Community Service
Roy Sargeant, Chief
P.O. Box 83720
Boise, ID 83720-0036
#208.334.6500
E-mail: sargeant@idhw.state.id.us

State Mental Health Representative for Children
Department of Health and Welfare
Bureau of Mental Health & Substance Abuse
Division of Family and Community Service
Anna Sever, Chief
P.O. Box 83720
Boise, ID 83720-0036
#208.334.5689

State Disability Organization
NAMI-Idaho
Lee Woodland, Executive Director
P.O. Box 68
Albion, ID 83311
#208.673.6672;
800.572.9940
E-Mail: namiid@atcnet.net
Web: www.atcnet.net/~namiid/

Washington

State Mental Health Agency
Department of Social & Health Services
Mental Health Division
Pat Terry, Acting Director
P.O. Box 45320
Olympia, WA 98504-5320
#360.902.0790

State Mental Health Representative for Children and Youth
Department of Social & Health Services Community Services, Mental Health Division
Pat Terry, Acting Director
P.O. Box 45320
Olympia, WA 98504-5320
#360.902.0790

State Disability Organization-Mental Health Alliance for the Mentally Ill of WA
Arlene Engel, President
4305 Lacey Blvd
Lacey, WA 98503 #800.877.2649 (in WA) E-mail: namiwa@olywa.net Web: www.geocities.com/HotSprings/oasis/1563

Mental Health Resources for the State of Alaska

State Mental Health Agency Department of Health and Social Services Division of Mental Health/DD
Karl R. Brimner, Director
P.O. Box 110620 Juneau, AK 99811-0620
#907.465.3370;
907.465.2225 (TTY)
E-mail: Karl_Brimner@health.state.ak.us
Web: www.hss.state.ak.us

State Mental Health Representative for Children and Youth
Department of Health and Social Services Division of Mental Health/DD
Anne Henry, Special Projects Coordinator
P.O. Box 110620
Juneau, AK 99811-0620
#907.465.3370;
907.465.2225 (TTY)
E-Mail: anne_henry@health.state.ak.us
Web: www.hss.state.ak.us

State Disability Organization-Mental Health
Alaska Mental Health Association
Jan McGillivary, CEO
4045 Lake Otis Parkway, Suite 209
Anchorage, AK 99508-5221
#907.563.0880
E-Mail: mhaa@alaska.net
Web: www.alaska.net/~mhaa

NAMI Alaska
144 W. 15th Avenue Anchorage, AK 99501
#907.277.1300;
800.498.4462 (In AK)

Oregon Resources

State Mental Health Agency
Mental Health and DD Services Division Department of Human Services
Barry S. Kast, Administrator
2575 Bittern Street, NE
Salem, OR 97310-0520
E-mail: kastb@mail.mhd.hr.state.or.us

State Mental Health Representative for Children and Youth
Office of Mental Health Services Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Services Division Stephen Perkins, Program Specialist
2575 Bittern Street, NE
Salem, OR 97310-0520
#503.945.9739
E-Mail: perkinss@mail.mhd.hr.state.or.us

State Disability Organization-Mental Health
Mental Health Association of Oregon
Cecelia Vergaretti, Program Director
620 S.W. 5th Avenue, 5th Floor Portland, OR 97204
#503.243.2081;
800.452.1694
E-Mail: mhaoregon@aol.com

NAMI-Oregon
Bonnie Parypa, Program Manager
3300 Market Street, NE, Suite 11
Salem, OR 97301
#503.370.7774;
800.343.6264
E-Mail: cloud51@aol.com

Head Start Publications and Resources on Mental Health

Head Start recognizes the contribution that mental health information and services can make to the wellness of children and families. The Head Start Publications Management Center (HSPMC) provides Head Start programs with an array of publications, multi-media materials and online resources to promote an understanding of mental health and to help build collaborative relationships among children, families, staff, mental health professionals and the larger community. How To Order To order publications on mental health and for online access to the entire catalog of Head Start materials, visit the HSPMC web site at www.hskids-tmsc.org. You can also submit your order via fax: (703) 683-5769 or e-mail: puborder@hskids-tmsc.org.

New! Head Start Mental Health Tool Kit

The Head Start Mental Health Tool Kit is your online guide to resources on the mental health of young children and families. To access the tool kit's extensive Mental Health Library of publications, articles and links to major information clearinghouses, log on to: http://ww.hskidstmsc.org/infocenter/ mentalhealth/mh_tkbok.htm.

You will find links to:

• sites that feature promising practices in early childhood mental health
• sites that provide family information and support on mental health issues
• resources on workplace mental health, including employee assistance programs
• directories of mental health contacts in your state
• federal agencies
• organizations of professionals specializing in mental health

Look for easy links to the Children's Mental Health Glossary, the Head Start Program Performance Standards on mental health and the Head Start Electronic Forums, where you can post questions and discuss specific issues on mental health services in your program and community. The Head Start Publications Management Center is a service of the Head Start Bureau and provides information, resources and materials to help Head Start programs enhance their operations and services. For more information, contact us at (202) 737-1030 phone or e-mail askus@hskids-tmsc.org.