The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has appointed FPG advanced implementation specialist William A. Aldridge II to serve as a member of its committee for the Consensus Study on Fostering Healthy Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Development Among Children and Youth. This week, the committee held its first meeting in Washington, D.C.

“The opportunity to contribute to the national conversation about how to foster healthy mental, emotional, and behavioral development among children and youth is truly humbling," Aldridge said. "While I’m excited to contribute as much as I can to the committee’s efforts, I’m equally as excited to learn along the way from national colleagues and partners in this area.”

As a committee member, Aldridge is helping review and synthesize the available research and analysis on areas of key advances and persistent challenges since the publication of the 2009 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report, Preventing Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Disorders Among Young People: Progress and Possibilities. Based on the review and analysis of the information the committee gathers and on confidential deliberations, the committee will produce a new consensus report with actionable recommendations for specific agencies and organizations to lead efforts into the next decade. 

Aldridge is currently principal investigator on FPG’s North Carolina Implementation Capacity for Triple P project and provides active implementation support for the California child welfare system's Core Practice Model. He is also implementation science strategist at Penn State's Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center and on the Board of Directors of the National Prevention Science Coalition. His work includes intensive technical assistance and evaluation research on the active implementation and scaling-up of evidence-based prevention and wellbeing strategies in community settings and state, regional, and national service systems.

The committee for the Consensus Study on Fostering Healthy Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Development Among Children and Youth may consider several questions:

1.  How has the context changed since the publication of the 2009 report in areas such as cross-sector partnerships, creation of infrastructures for the implementation of prevention, incidence and prevalence trends for specific conditions, integration of mental, emotional, and behavioral health strategies into other healthcare settings, risk and protective factors, cultural and linguistic factors, and cost-saving strategies?

2.  How has the state of the science changed since the publication of the 2009 report in areas relevant to fostering mental, emotional, and behavioral health among children and youth, such as the core components of evidence-based strategies (community and practice-based) essential to producing positive outcomes, implementation science, public health approaches, and utilization of data and quality improvement systems?

3.  What interventions have been effectively implemented and what program and policy gaps must be addressed to better achieve prevention of disorders and promotion of healthy development, such as workforce development and infrastructure to support implementation at scale?

4.  What has been the progress since the 2009 report specifically on two-generation approaches to foster healthy mental, emotional, and behavioral development with respect to evidence of effectiveness and dissemination for those approaches?

5.  What has been learned since the publication of the 2009 report about the influence of the environmental context on neurobiology and what are the implications for strategies to foster mental, emotional, and behavioral development among children and youth.

6.  What has been learned about increasing health equity in the context of fostering healthy mental, emotional, and behavioral development of children and youth?

7.  What role does practice based evidence, including community defined evidence in multicultural settings play in fostering healthy mental, emotional, and behavioral development among children and youth and how do we further develop the evidence that certain community and cultural practices work?

8.  What role do complementary (e.g., mindfulness, meditation, yoga) and integrative approaches (e.g., optimizing evidence-based interventions with mindfulness, meditation, yoga) play in fostering healthy mental, emotional, and behavioral development of children and youth?

more on the committee for the Consensus Study on Fostering Healthy Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Development Among Children and Youth

committee members

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compiled from information from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine