New York’s health care system treats parents/caregivers and their children as separate entities, and Medicaid largely relies on diagnoses to drive reimbursement, rather than paying for prevention. This can lead to higher costs, poorer outcomes, and missed opportunities for promotion of positive parent-child interactions and prevention and early intervention.
To address these shortcomings, the Schuyler Center’s most recent policy brief examines an approach that treats the child and their parent/caregiver together.
The dyadic approach, conducted within primary care, screens babies and toddlers for healthy development and adults for stressors such as depression and substance use disorders, intimate partner violence, unstable housing, and food insecurity. Connections are made to programs that can support the family and guide open conversations about the best ways to support early learning, healthy disciplinary interactions, and caregiver-child bonding.
The policy brief provides recommendations for sustainable funding for dyadic services through Medicaid and other health insurance to expand access to these services.
To highlight the recommendations in the brief, the Schuyler Center held a webinar on April 27 with speakers discussing how dyadic services are presented in pediatric settings and how they benefit families.
The brief and webinar recording are posted on Schuyler Center’s website.
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