What's Happening

October 2023: Zero to Thrive News
Mom Power Added to California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare (CEBC) Program Registry

The Zero to Thrive program within Michigan Medicine is pleased to announce their Strong Roots Mom Power program has been approved by the California Evidenced-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare (CEBC), a nationally recognized body that applies rigorous standards of review to identify effective programs.

Strong Roots Mom Power program is a multi-generational group intervention for mothers with their babies facing high levels of adversity. This 13-week program engages mothers in strengths-based, resilience-building, and interactive mental health support. It offers developmental and parenting guidance, support for building self-care skills, and nurtures social support through connections with other mothers sharing these experiences.

Developed in 2009, Mom Power is the first evidence-based program of its kind to demonstrate functional changes in the maternal brain associated with intervention. The CEBC has rated Mom Power as a 3 - Promising Research Evidence on their Scientific Rating Scale in the Trauma Treatment (Adult) topic area. Research has shown:

•       Improvements in depression, parenting stress, and post-traumatic stress symptoms.

•       Decreased social isolation.

•       Improved confidence and comfort in parenting.

•       Increase in understanding of children’s behaviors and motivations.

•       Increased capacity to reflect on and respond to their own and their children’s emotions.

“Parenting is hard and can be very stressful, particularly for families facing adversities. Mom Power was co-developed with input from parents and providers and offers mothers a community to connect with others who ‘get it’, reflect on parenting, build self-care skills, and share in both the joys and hardships of parenthood.” said Kate Rosenblum, PhD, Professor and Co-Director of Zero to Thrive at Michigan Medicine. “The program is an evidence-based, therapist-led program specifically designed to mitigate barriers to engagement in services, enhance mental health and social support, and nurture responsive and secure early relationships. We are proud to be accepted to the CEBC registry.”

You can review the listing here.

You can learn more about Mom Power here.


September 2023: Michigan Medicine Health Lab
A pill to treat postpartum depression? It's here

Dr. Maria Muzik was interviewed for this Michigan Medicine Health Lab story: A pill to treat postpartum depression?


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September 2023: Michigan Medicine Headlines
U-M Health Commits $5.4 Million to Improve Health Equity in Washtenaw County

Project ‘Community Building through Relational Health: Perinatal Dialectical Behavior Therapy in Community Prevention/Intervention’ was one of the projects mentioned in this Michigan Medicine Headlines story: U-M Health Commits $5.4 Million to Improve Health Equity in Washtenaw County

This project will fund engagement with community members and behavioral health providers to support perinatal mental health and parent-infant/toddler relational health within Washtenaw County through widespread training in Strong Roots Perinatal Dialectical Behavior Therapy (SR Peri DBT) for pregnant and postpartum individuals. Training will take place in the format of Learning Collaboratives to support providers, and to expand service provision in the County. “I’m excited that I was also awarded a Medicaid Match grant for this project, and we have an amendment going in to expand that match budget so that we will essentially double the budget of this project, and it will allow us to expand these services to other counties, and to other departments within Michigan Medicine (e.g.. OBGYN),” says Dr. Riggs.


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September 2023: Zero to Thrive News
New Publication: Frontiers in Psychiatry

A new article has been published in the Frontiers in Psychiatry regarding a randomized pilot trial of Mom Power trauma- and attachment-informed multi-family group intervention in treating and preventing postpartum symptoms of depression among a health disparity sample.

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July 2023: Zero to Thrive News
New Publication: Journal of Clinical Medicine

A new article has been published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine titled: Evaluation of the Michigan Clinical Consultation and Care Program discussing an evidence-based approach to perinatal mental healthcare.


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May 2023: Ann Arbor Observer
A breakthrough program gets a boost from the Community Mental Health Millage

Dr. Kate Rosenblum and several Washtenaw community members were quoted in this Ann Arbor Observer story: Mom Power! A breakthrough program gets a boost from the Community Mental Health Millage


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May 2023: TV6

Experts provide mental health resources for women as need increases

Dr. Mahela Ashraf was interviewed by TV6 in the Upper Peninsula about women’s mental health and the MC3 program’s role in partnering with providers statewide to support perinatal patients with mental health concerns: Experts provide mental health resources for women as need increases


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April 2023: Zero to Thrive News

Michigan Model of Infant Mental Health Home Visiting Added to California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare (CEBC) Program Registry

The Michigan Model of Infant Mental Health Home Visiting (IMH-HV) has been approved for the California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare (CEBC) Program Registry. Review of the published IMH-HV evaluation studies, including both community-based implementation trials and a university-based randomized controlled trial, led to a favorable rating and IMH-HV is now officially recognized by CEBC as a program with supportive research evidence to demonstrate positive outcomes for families in the topic area of “Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Programs (Birth to 5). This rating indicates that a program has established reliable positive outcomes using rigorous experimental design.


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November 2022: Zero to Thrive News

Drs. Maria Muzik and Kate Rosenblum to give keynote at Zero to Three Learn Institute conference

Drs. Maria Muzik and Kate Rosenblum will inspire the Zero to Three audience as they discuss their work, its results, their questions and insights, including:  


  • Zero to Thrive’s mission to advance robust scientific discoveries, quality training, and vibrant cross-sector initiatives that create breakthrough, real-world solutions to transform the well-being and resilience of families from conception to early childhood with impacts for generations to come; and  
  • The Strong Roots programs aim to promote health and resilience by fostering safe, strong, and positive relationships for families, agencies, and communities from pregnancy to age 6. 


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January 2023: Early Childhood Education Journal

University‑Community Partnerships to Support Responsive Caregiving: The Hearts and Minds on Babies Implementation Story

Consistent, sensitive caregiving across home and childcare contexts supports optimal development. In this paper, we share the story of the development of Hearts and Minds on Babies (HMB) for Early Head Start (EHS) administrators, teachers, and parents. HMB was designed to support caregiver refective functioning and sensitivity and reduce caregiver stress. This paper describes a series of Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles used to adapt an existing parenting intervention into the HMB programming for EHS.


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October 2022: Anna Freud Centre

Zero to Thrive research informed new study showing positive impacts of therapy with young children and parents

A new systematic study shows psychotherapy interventions can prevent and reduce mental health difficulties in both parents and caregivers and their babies and young children.

 

A comprehensive scientific review of international research by the Anna Freud Centre shows the positive impacts of therapy interventions with children under 5 Years of age and their caregivers. Two of Zero to Thrives research studies, IMH-HV “The Michigan Model” and Mom Power, were included in this meta-analysis. The comprehensive report reinforces the work of Zero to Thrive in promoting health and resilience of families from pregnancy through early childhood.

 

The detailed research, the first of its kind to focus specifically on psychodynamic and psychoanalytic interventions, was commissioned by the Association of Child Psychotherapists (ACP) and published on 6 October 2022.

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First Quarter 2023:
Early Childhood Research Quarterly

Demographic and psychological factors that predict retention in infant mental health home visiting

Home visiting programs are prominent prevention and intervention models that improve the well-being of infants, young children and their families who are at risk for negative outcomes. However, many home visiting programs struggle to retain families for the length of the intervention. We used survival analysis to examine the impact of demographic (e.g., education, socioeconomic status) and mental health concerns (e.g., maternal stress, therapist-rated mental health status) factors on the retention of 70 mothers in Infant Mental Health-Home Visiting (IMH-HV), a multi-faceted, needs-driven, relationship-focused psychotherapeutic home visiting model.

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July 21, 2022: Second Wave Michigan

Michigan programs aim to prevent preschool expulsions, reducing lifelong harmful effects

Katherine Rosenblum,

Co-Director of the University of Michigan's

Zero to Thrive program

This article is part of State of Health, a series about how Michigan communities are rising to address health challenges. It is made possible with funding from the Michigan Health Endowment Fund.

"Preschool to prison pipeline."

That's how some Michigan early childhood professionals refer to the way preschool and daycare expulsions and suspensions rock children's lives, not to mention the lives of their parents.


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Summer 2022: Medicine at Michigan Magazine

Children's Mental Health Is in Crisis

Here are 7 things we can do right now to help.

“People are calling me, saying, ‘I and my child have been in the ER for a couple of days now, waiting for a bed. My child is suicidal. We can’t go home … and I’m terrified. What do I do? How can you help?” says Donna Martin, M.D., Ph.D., chair of pediatrics, the Ravitz Foundation Endowed Professor of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases, and professor of human genetics. “And that’s just wrong.”

The situation is severe. But it is not new.


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June 17, 2022: Leelanau Ticker

U of M’s Fraternity Of Fathers Brings New Parenting Perspectives To Families In The County

Leelanau County once again finds itself leading the way in early childhood development innovations (here is one recent example) and this time the spotlight is on dads of young kids in the county.


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January 13, 2022: Second Wave

Michigan docs tackle youth mental health crisis with on-demand psychiatric support from U-M program

Michigan Child Collaborative Care helps primary care providers address their young patients' mental health by offering same-day phone consultations with psychiatrists, among other services. This article is part of State of Health, a series about how Michigan communities are rising to address health challenges. It is made possible with funding from the Michigan Health Endowment Fund.


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October 28, 2021: Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics

Infant Mental Health Home Visiting Mitigates Impact of Maternal Adverse Childhood Experiences on Toddler Language Competence

Dr. Jessica Riggs (lead author), along with Drs. Kate Rosenblum and Maria Muzik (PIs) and the Michigan Collaborative for Infant Mental Health Research recently showed in a new article in Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics that a relationship-focused home visiting program mitigates the impact of maternal ACEs on toddler language. Specifically, maternal ACE score predicted worse toddler language development overall, but participants who received Infant Mental Health Home Visiting (IMH-HV).


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October 19, 2021: American Academy of Pediatrics

Declaration of a National Emergency in Child and Adolescent Mental Health

The AAP, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Children's Hospital Association recently declared a national state of emergency for child and adolescent mental health. 


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October 15, 2021: CNN

More than $15 billion in child tax credit payments distributed on Friday

About 13 percent of eligible low-income households did not receive the first two federal child tax credit payments, and were not sure why or were uncertain on how to claim them, says Natasha Pilkauskas, associate professor of public policy and faculty associate at the Institute for Social Research: “It is important that we take additional steps to ensure the CTC is reaching and supporting all eligible children and families who can benefit from this important investment.”


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Natasha Pilkauskas


September 17, 2020: New York Times

Navigating the Emotional Turf of Fall Family Gatherings

While warm weather has given families the opportunity to gather relatively safely in backyards, fall and winter celebrations are a trickier proposition. Dr. Charity Hoffman shares her experience.

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May 31, 2020: Bloomberg

Navigating the Emotional Turf of Fall Family Gatherings

What kids learn in their friends’ homes can be more important than what they learn in the classroom. Dr. Kate Rosenblum shares her expertise.

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