What We Do
Identifying and selecting the clinical service delivery model is the first key ingredient to successful implementation of dyadic services. Whether you are starting new or building on existing services, we will guide you through an analysis of care gaps that is grounded in the evidence of optimal child development and well-being and is centered on the patient and family experience and existing network of care. Next, we provide information about service models and components of dyadic services to support your selection of the components or model that best fits your service needs. Finally, we guide the selection of provider types that considers available Medi-Cal financing strategies to ensure your service model is sustainable. Depending on the care components or model your organization selects, we will either support adoption of the model or link you with partners that will provide training and technical assistance toward successful implementation.
Why We Do It
Despite the overwhelming causal evidence linking caregiver well-being with positive child development and reduction in negative downstream impacts of trauma and adversity, the healthcare system is not designed to support caregivers within the context of pediatric healthcare. The fact that children go to their pediatrician for at least 12 check-ups during the first three years of life and that pediatric offices are the greatest healthcare entity with which caregivers of young children interact, the failure of the healthcare system to provide family-based and caregiver support during well-child visits is a missed opportunity to support child/family well-being and to engage in important preventative interventions that have enormous cost-saving potential for the healthcare system.
Clinical models that target the relationship between the infant and their caregiver acknowledge that the caregiving relationship is the single most important developmental context for a young child. In order to ensure positive health and development of an infant and young child, the caregiving relationship and the caregiver/environmental well-being must be the target of clinical interventions during early childhood. Dyadic therapy models, such as HealthySteps and Child Parent Psychotherapy (CPP) have a strong evidence base to support the effectiveness in mitigating the effects of trauma and adversity experienced in early childhood by targeting the dyadic infant/caregiver relationship.
