Research that Benefits Children and Families—Uplifting Stories

Project LAUNCH (Linking Actions for Unmet Needs in Children’s Health) is a Federal grant program administered by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to promote the wellness of young children ages birth to 8 years of age. Through an Intra-Agency Agreement with SAMHSA, oversight of the project is provided by the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation within the Administration for Children and Families in the Department of Health and Human Services

The information collected is of importance to the public health and behavioral health fields in advancing knowledge about comprehensive community-wide approaches to improving child health and development. Information will be provided   and lessons learned about how coordinated service strategies and system-building activities can be designed to improve the physical, emotional, social, cognitive, and behavioral aspects of health and well-being for children and families.

Reference:

http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/resource/cross-site-evaluation-of-project-launch-evaluation-design

U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services/Administration for children and families - Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation

I had the privilege of being a child wellness coordinator when this project was implemented in El Paso Texas and was able to see very good results. My job was to work with families and teach them parenting classes that would promote the social emotional health in children 0-8. I remember how regarding it was when week after week I would literally see the improvement in these children and the parent empowerment. One little girl in particular named “Maria” was always isolated at school because she was fearful of her peers. After visiting the family, I learned they had just migrated from Mexico and her parents had been teaching her not to talk to anybody. Needless to say, Maria was not doing well in school and she was being bullied by her peers as the “weird” one. After the 8 week parenting classes and assessing her through the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (A&SQ) I was able to see the transformation. Her grades improved, she was friendly with her peers, who in return stopped the bullying, and the teacher found out she was one of her honor students. I documented Marias progress with great joy and just like her, many other children’s lives were changed through Project L.A.U.N.C.H.

RESEARCH SIMULATION

The topic of my interest for research is how a child’s mental health is affected when they are victimized and abused during the early years

I chose this topic because I have personally seen how a child's emotional state can be affected due to abuse. Because the brain controls all of our actions and emotions, a child's mental health is very important.

A child who is not emotionally stable cannot concentrate in school and develop the skills necessary to succeed.

 I think this area in particular needs more research because it is often overlooked and from this area many important factors depend. One very important factor is citizenship skills, which in contrast affects the social skills. Social and emotional skills are what shape a child and as long as we do not understand how they are feeling emotionally, it is going to be very difficult to decipher their actions and help them. Teachers who create a caring relationship with students is because they have somewhat peeked into their inner emotional state and are able to understand them.

Citizenship skills are often overlooked because the educators are too busy trying to meet the academic requirements so the school will not suffer the consequences of cuts in funding. During this process, the children’s emotional state is stressed and this causes the child to perform poorly sometimes. I believe the base of all the problems the youth of today face derive from the lack of promoting good citizenship skills at an early age. This topic would be of ultimate importance and interest for me to research further. From such research, teachers as well as families would benefit. At school, teachers would be able to acquire improved academic results from students; and at home, parents would have a well behaved child. Overall, after transitioning to adulthood, these children would be productive law abiding citizens and the benefit would extend globally