Infuse Social-Emotional Health into Other Child-Serving Systems

Create a state strategic plan to infuse infant and early childhood social-emotional health into primary and public health, early learning and development, child welfare, home visiting, and early intervention efforts. An infant and early childhood social-emotional health state plan should address promotion, prevention and treatment and include core components such as leadership, linking systems, public awareness, financing, improvement strategies, and professional development.

Social-emotional health is important for child development and it can be supported in every system that touches young children and families. North Carolina does not currently have a coordinated approach to promoting social-emotional health across different systems such as early intervention, early care and learning, and primary care. A comprehensive plan and policy agenda to build a social-emotional health ecosystem in North Carolina, in addition to targeted initiatives by sector, will help to ensure more accessible and effective social-emotional health services for young children and families.