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Where mission
and heart meet behavioral health, from the very start. |
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Welcome to the July 2025 issue of Prenatal - 5: Grow & Thrive - HCA’s monthly newsletter about our behavioral health work in the early years of life. We hope that this newsletter helps build shared awareness of HCA’s efforts in this area and provides a centralized place to stay up to date on what’s new and happening. |
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Washington State Health Care Authority and Department of Health are conducting a short survey to better understand Washington’s perinatal mental health workforce – professionals who provide care during pregnancy and up to one year after birth. We’re especially interested in the experiences of providers serving pregnant and postpartum individuals covered by Apple Health (Medicaid). Your input will help identify gaps in care and guide strategies to improve services for families across the state.
If you’re a licensed or license-eligible mental health clinician in Washington, we want to hear from you!
Early Childhood Courts (ECC) are a special court program based on Zero To Three's Safe Babies Approach for families with young children involved in child welfare. The approach is intended to be developmentally-tailored, recognizing the unique needs of young children and parents. HCA is one of several organizations that participates in the ECC State Advisory Board.
In 2024, Zero To Three conducted listening sessions with 35 parents from across Washington state who were involved with child welfare. The Voices of Families report shares these parents’ perspectives on several different themes, including:
- Access to substance use disorder (SUD) treatment services
- Experiences with labor and delivery services
- The value of child welfare peer supports
- Experiences with child welfare staff and systems
- Considerations for whole-family SUD treatment
- The impact of domestic violence
- The need for affordable and safe housing
The report also includes recommendations for how providers and systems partners can take action.
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DC:0-5 trainings are back this fall! Do you provide (or want to provide) mental health assessments and diagnoses for young children? The Diagnostic Classification of Mental Health and Developmental Disorders of Infancy and Early Childhood (or DC:0-5) is the developmentally appropriate diagnostic manual for kids under age six, and it’s required for Apple Health mental health professionals.
The DC:0-5 Clinical training is a 12-hour training to support you in utilizing the DC:0-5 in your work assessing and diagnosing children birth through age five. Continuing education credits and manuals are provided at no-cost. Multiple offerings are available.
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September 30 – October 2 | 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. each day | virtual
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October 13 – 15 | 1 to 5 p.m. each day | virtual
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A community health worker (CHW) is a frontline public health worker who is a trusted member of or has a unique understanding of the community served. This trusting relationship enables the worker to serve as a liaison between health and social services and the community to facilitate access to services and improve the quality and cultural competence of service delivery.
Effective July 1, 2025, Washington State launched a new Apple Health (Medicaid) Community Health Worker (CHW) benefit.
Who can provide CHW services?
CHW services are available through Apple Health when recommended by a licensed provider, such as a physician or other licensed practitioner. Services can be delivered by Community Health Workers (CHWs) or Community Health Representatives (CHRs) who meet the qualifications in WAC 182-562-0400.
What CHW services are covered?
- Person-centered assessment
- Care coordination and health system navigation
- Facilitating behavior change
- Health education and promotion
CHW services in the P-5 period
CHW services can be provided to Apple Health clients of all ages, including those in the prenatal – age five period. Some research has shown that CHW services in the prenatal – age five period can help reduce parental stress, increase knowledge of positive parenting, and make closed-loop connections to social-emotional support services (Moheize et al., 2024; Rex et al., 2024).
Learn more
There are many ways to learn more about CHW services.
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You can find earlier editions of this newsletter on our IECMH webpage, under IECMH updates.
Prenatal – 5: Grow & Thrive is also a spin-off newsletter of HCA’s Prenatal – 25: Thrive newsletter, which focuses on behavioral health for the entire age span of pregnancy to early adulthood. If you missed it, check out the most recent edition of the P-25 Thrive newsletter.
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If you have any questions about this newsletter, please email us.
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