Intended to foster program-to-program learning from within the Head Start community about how programs infuse a mental health perspective into Head Start, this report highlights strategies generated by seven Head Start programs to better meet the changing and intensifying mental health needs of Head Start children, families, and staff. The report is designed to stimulate dialogue about difficult issues that are often unaddressed, such as skepticism about traditional mental health strategies, the depth of need among some families, or where to find funding. An additional goal of the report is to spur communication and collaborative partnerships between the mental health, Head Start, and other service communities. Chapter 1 of the report summarizes the reasons that new attention to building nontraditional and strengthening traditional mental health strategies is both critical and possible. Chapter 2 presents mental health-related strategies that focus on staff development involving primarily work with children. Chapter 3 highlights new ways of engaging families, particularly those with the most complex stresses. Chapter 4 describes those few programs whose mental health-related strategies include strong connections to the larger community, either through collaborations around integrated services, or as part of community efforts to address problems such as substance abuse. Chapter 5 focuses on issues related to efforts to enhance mental health in the context of Head Start. These issues include assessment, gaps in research, financing needs, and the kind of training and technical assistance all programs need to enhance mental health-related strategies. Chapter 6 summarizes the lessons learned and offers recommendations at the program, community, state, and national levels. (Appendices contain a list of resources, national organizations concerned with children's mental health, Head Start mental health performance standards, and program and resource contacts cited in lessons from the field). (JPB)