Glenace Edwall, Director, Children’s Mental Health Division, Minnesota Department of Human Services

Glenace Edwall has been leading Minnesota’s groundbreaking work in assuring good outcomes for children at risk of developmental disorders or delays for almost a decade, partnering with NASHP to spread her state’s successes into the national discussion.

Together with her colleague Susan Castellano, Edwall was privileged to work with NASHP for nine years on the ABCD (Assuring Better Child Health and Development) initiative. Edwall noted that their work included “contributing our state-specific experience and data to the larger national effort to enhance the capacity of primary care to identify and coordinate care for young children at risk of adverse developmental outcomes.”

Edwall’s work in Minnesota has focused on building an infrastructure for children’s mental health with capacity for early identification and intervention, easy access, and measurable effectiveness. She has shared her experiences and successes with a national audience through NASHP conferences and projects. Working with NASHP on the ABCD initiative, Edwall has developed a toolkit she plans on making available to pediatric and family practice providers in Minnesota that can enhance childhood care coordination.

“Minnesota’s long involvement with the ABCD project has been transformative for my agency in its capacities as Medicaid and mental health authority, as well as in our relationships with health care providers and other systems, such as Early Intervention. We launched statewide efforts to develop an early childhood mental health system of care out of our ABCD II grant, and the recently-concluded ABCD III project has produced a toolkit useful to clinics and schools interested in establishing coordinated care for young children,” said Edwall.