The Need for Performance Standards in Preschools: Stealing Shamelessly from Comprehensive School Mental Health Literature

Young children are at-risk for developing significant mental health difficulties just as their older, school-aged peers. Preschool settings have increasingly attempted to proactively address early childhood socioemotional needs by expanding their prevention and intervention activities. A number of emerging best practices in promoting early childhood mental health have been proposed. However, there are no comprehensive performance standards for preschool mental health and limited guidance on how preschools can align themselves with best practices. This expansion in service scope parallels the development of Comprehensive School Mental Health Systems in K-12 schools. Resources and tools developed for K-12 educational settings may serve as a useful example for preschool mental health systems interested in quality comprehensive mental health care. This conceptual article will describe the prevalence of mental health difficulties in young children, review the current guidance on supporting mental health in young children, and provide support for adapting widely used K-12 school mental health performance standards to establish comprehensive standards for organizing and implementing high quality care systems in preschool settings

Rural Mental Health Care During a Global Health Pandemic: Addressing and Supporting the Rapid Transition to Tele-Mental Health

The adoption of tele-mental health by mental health professionals has been slow, especially in rural areas. Prior to 2020, less than half of mental health agencies offered tele-mental health for patients. In response to the global health pandemic in March of 2020, mental health therapists across the U.S. were challenged to make the rapid shift to tele-mental health to provide patient care. Given the lack of adoption of tele-mental health previously, immediate training in tele-mental health was needed. This article describes collaborative efforts between two mental health technology transfer centers and one addiction technology transfer center in rural regions of the U.S. in response to the rapid adoption of remote technologies to provide mental health services. A learning series of real-time tele-mental health trainings and supplemental materials were offered beginning in March 2020 to support this transition. A weekly learning series covered a variety of topics relevant to telehealth including technology basics, billing, state legislation, and working with children and adolescents. Given the demand of these initial training sessions, additional trainings were requested by agencies outside the regional technology transfer centers. To date, there have been more than 13,000 views of the tele-mental health webpage which includes recorded training sessions, handouts, and supplemental tele-mental health materials. The article also provides a summary of the questions and concerns highlighted by the more than 4,500 providers who joined the learning series, noting key rural and urban clinical and structural barriers to providing virtual care

Parents\u27 Perceptions of their Role in Early Childhood Health

The purpose of this study was to conduct exploratory analyses regarding parents’ perceptions of their role in the health of young children. This study also sought to understand the differences in parents’ perceived roles and their levels of concern for their children’s health status. Understanding such differences is critical to identifying specific areas that might require further intervention

Parents\u27 Perceptions of their Role in Early Childhood Health

The purpose of this study was to conduct exploratory analyses regarding parents’ perceptions of their role in the health of young children. This study also sought to understand the differences in parents’ perceived roles and their levels of concern for their children’s health status. Understanding such differences is critical to identifying specific areas that might require further intervention

Family/Partnership-centered Conjoint Behavioral Consultation: The Reconceptualization of a Model

• The importance of working meaningfully and constructively with families in promoting a child’s learning and adjustment is unequivocal. Home-school partnerships have been shown to relate to many positive outcomes for children, families, teachers, and schools. • Conjoint Behavioral Consultation (CBC; Sheridan, Kratochwill, & Bergan, 1996) is a structured, indirect model of service delivery whereby parents and teachers are joined to collaboratively address needs and concerns of a child with the assistance of a consultant. Goals of CBC encompass those focused on addressing child needs, and developing home-school partnerships. • CBC is procedurally operationalized via conjoint interviews (Problem Identification, Problem Analysis, and Treatment Evaluation) aimed at prioritizing shared concerns across home and school settings, evaluating factors contributing to the identified concern, developing an agreeable plan, and evaluating the child’s progress toward goals. • Traditional approaches to CBC emphasize a problem-solving orientation, aimed largely at addressing problems experienced by individual children

Co-administration With the Pharmacological Chaperone AT1001 Increases Recombinant Human α-Galactosidase A Tissue Uptake and Improves Substrate Reduction in Fabry Mice

Fabry disease is an X-linked lysosomal storage disorder (LSD) caused by mutations in the gene (GLA) that encodes the lysosomal hydrolase α-galactosidase A (α-Gal A), and is characterized by pathological accumulation of the substrate, globotriaosylceramide (GL-3). Regular infusion of recombinant human α-Gal A (rhα-Gal A), termed enzyme replacement therapy (ERT), is the primary treatment for Fabry disease. However, rhα-Gal A has low physical stability, a short circulating half-life, and variable uptake into different disease-relevant tissues. We hypothesized that coadministration of the orally available, small molecule pharmacological chaperone AT1001 (GR181413A, 1-deoxygalactonojirimycin, migalastat hydrochloride) may improve the pharmacological properties of rhα-Gal A via binding and stabilization. AT1001 prevented rhα-Gal A denaturation and activity loss in vitro at neutral pH and 37 °C. Coincubation of Fabry fibroblasts with rhα-Gal A and AT1001 resulted in up to fourfold higher cellular α-Gal A and ~30% greater GL-3 reduction compared to rhα-Gal A alone. Furthermore, coadministration of AT1001 to rats increased the circulating half-life of rhα-Gal A by >2.5-fold, and in GLA knockout mice resulted in up to fivefold higher α-Gal A levels and fourfold greater GL-3 reduction than rhα-Gal A alone. Collectively, these data highlight the potentially beneficial effects of AT1001 on rhα-Gal A, thus warranting clinical investigation

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Parental self-efficacy: Examination of a protective factor for parents of low -income with young children

The purposes of this study were to assess (a) the direct effects of parental stress and depression on parental warmth and sensitivity, support for autonomy, and support for learning and literacy; and (b) the mediational effect of parental self-efficacy between stress and depression and these behavioral constructs for parents of low-income with young children. Participants included 152 parent-child dyads taking part in the Parent Engagement and Child Learning: Birth to Five project; children were between 2 to 51 months of age. Measures included parent reports of stress, depression, and self-efficacy, and video-taped parent-child interactions. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to determine the factor structure of the Parent/Caregiver Involvement Scale (P/CIS) used to code parenting behavior. Results supported the proposed three factor model of warmth and sensitivity, support for autonomy, and support for learning and literacy. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the direct and mediational effects for a mediational model. Results indicated that parental stress had a direct effect on all parenting behavioral constructs and parental self-efficacy; however, depression was found to have no direct effect on parental self-efficacy or the parenting behavioral constructs. Additionally, no mediational relationship was found for parental self-efficacy

Parental self-efficacy: Examination of a protective factor for parents of low -income with young children

The purposes of this study were to assess (a) the direct effects of parental stress and depression on parental warmth and sensitivity, support for autonomy, and support for learning and literacy; and (b) the mediational effect of parental self-efficacy between stress and depression and these behavioral constructs for parents of low-income with young children. Participants included 152 parent-child dyads taking part in the Parent Engagement and Child Learning: Birth to Five project; children were between 2 to 51 months of age. Measures included parent reports of stress, depression, and self-efficacy, and video-taped parent-child interactions. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to determine the factor structure of the Parent/Caregiver Involvement Scale (P/CIS) used to code parenting behavior. Results supported the proposed three factor model of warmth and sensitivity, support for autonomy, and support for learning and literacy. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the direct and mediational effects for a mediational model. Results indicated that parental stress had a direct effect on all parenting behavioral constructs and parental self-efficacy; however, depression was found to have no direct effect on parental self-efficacy or the parenting behavioral constructs. Additionally, no mediational relationship was found for parental self-efficacy