Project LAUNCH

Background

The LAUNCH project promotes the emotional, social, and behavioral health of young children, by enhancing early childhood service systems and promoting integration of early childhood mental health into pediatric medical homes. Researchers at the IHESJR have been evaluating its efficacy since 2009.

Project LAUNCH / Project LAUNCH Expansion

This project is led by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) and is being evaluated by researchers at IHESJR under the direction of Dr. Beth Molnar. The LAUNCH project promotes the emotional, social, and behavioral health of young children (ages birth to 8 years) by enhancing early childhood service systems, providing family-focused care and promoting integration of mental health into pediatric medical homes. The MDPH has worked closely with the Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC) as the local partner to enhance local systems of care for Massachusetts children since 2009. The project helps these community health care sites improve the quality of their pediatric practices, integrate new early childhood mental health services with ongoing pediatric care, and assure linkage of medical homes with other community programs that serve children. Through funding a family partner and a mental health clinician at each site, who provide family support and parent training, this project provides enhanced direct services to families experiencing child abuse or neglect, domestic violence, substance abuse, maternal depression or other parental mental health problems.  

Evaluation results from the first Project LAUNCH grant (2009-2014) found evidence of efficacy as both children and caregivers who scored in age-specific clinically significant ranges of social, emotional and behavioral problems at Time 1 scored in the normal range on average by Time 3. Caregivers’ stress and depressive symptoms also declined across the three time points. Results support hypotheses that the LAUNCH intervention improved social and emotional health for children and caregivers. A peer-reviewed article in the Maternal and Child Health Journal describing this study is free to access at this link.  Currently, the LAUNCH project is being implemented and evaluated in expansion communities through 2019. More about the Project LAUNCH model including a downloadable toolkit can be found at ECMHMatters.org.

Publication: 

Molnar BE, Lees K, Roper K, Byars N, Mendez-Penate L, Moulin C, McMullen W, Wolfe J, Allen D. Enhancing early childhood mental health primary care services: Evaluation of MA Project LAUNCH. Journal of Maternal & Child Health 2018; 22(10): 1502-1510.

SAMHSA logo

Funded by a five-year, $607,000 grant from the Substance Abuse Health and Services Administration (SAMHSA).  The evaluation team also received funding from Abt Associates to conduct a special study to evaluate the impacts of Project LAUNCH on population level outcomes.

BPHC

Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC)

Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH)

Associated Staff

Beth Molnar - Institute for Health Equity and Social Justice Research, Northeastern University

Dr. Beth E. Molnar
Principal Investigator
Northeastern University

Farad Noubary - Northeastern University

Farzad Noubary
Clinical Associate Professor
Northeastern University

Daphney Mirand
Project Manager
Northeastern University

Sameera Nayak - Northeastern University

Sameera Nayak
Graduate Assistant
Northeastern University