The bill aims to address the mental health needs of young children in Rhode Island, specifically those under the age of six. It requires the Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS) to develop a budget and seek federal, philanthropic, or other funding to establish an early childhood mental health hub program. This hub will focus on promoting and improving access to infant and early childhood mental health services for children and their families and will be funded as a pilot program for a minimum of three years.

The hub will have several key functions, including:

1. Training and supporting infant and early childhood mental health professionals in Rhode Island.
2. Maintaining a registry of qualified infant and early childhood mental health professionals.
3. Monitoring the availability of services, new national recommendations, and advancements in interventions and therapies.
4. Making recommendations to Medicaid and behavioral health systems to address service gaps.

The hub will be designed to integrate with the Rhode Island children's behavioral health system of care managed by the EOHHS. It will prioritize needs outlined in the Rhode Island infant early childhood mental health plan, including:

1. Offering training and ongoing implementation support for clinicians to become certified in evidence-based, family-based dyadic therapy models for children under six, such as child-parent psychotherapy (CPP), parent-child interaction therapy (PCIT), and attachment and biobehavioral catch-up (ABC).
2. Providing training and ongoing implementation support on developmentally appropriate screenings to identify mental health challenges in young children.
3. Offering training and ongoing implementation support for clinicians to conduct developmentally, culturally, and family-appropriate assessments of mental health in young children.
4. Advancing equitable access to services and reducing racial and ethnic disparities by increasing the number of bilingual and culturally representative infant and early childhood qualified mental health clinicians.
5. Serving as a community resource for families and health professionals to connect with effective therapeutic services for young children facing mental health challenges.

This act will take effect upon passage.