Infant & Early Childhood Mental Health Consultant
Offering mental health services, strategies & support for healthy development.
Our Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation (IECMHC) service equips caregivers to strengthen the social, emotional, and behavioral health development of young children through relationship-based practices—before intervention is needed.
We recognize the significance of early experiences to lay the groundwork for healthy outcomes later in life. That’s why we offer children’s mental health services and consultations for infants and toddlers aged 0-36 months.
Our children’s mental health services are culturally sensitive and family-focused, with early childhood mental health consultants promoting social-emotional development while addressing challenging behaviors in children. Our practices are based on building relationships and skills with the adults in a child’s life. Taking a collaborative approach, we involve group/family child care providers, classroom teachers, program administrators, and the mental health consultant.
Our Approaches
Child/Family
This program focuses on helping adults understand and address the child’s needs by developing an individualized plan with the parents, providers, and home visitors.
Classroom/Group
Our goal is to help providers, teachers, and home visitors identify and address attitudes, beliefs, practices, and conditions that undermine quality relationships between children and adults.
Programmatic
This approach supports administrators, directors, home visitors, and other program leaders in making changes in their care practices and/or policies to the benefit of all children and adults in their setting.
Our Six-Step Method
Our early childhood mental health consultants bridge the gap between classrooms and homes by supporting families in both settings. They work with directors, staff, parents, caregivers, and others to provide resources and technical assistance, following these six steps:
- Initiation: getting to know the child
- Needs Assessment: discovering what support would be ideal for the children or adults
- Collaborative Action Planning: working with adults and decision makers to set forth a plan of support
- Implementation: putting the plan into action
- Transition & Sustainability: evaluating the effectiveness of the plan & its likelihood of long-term success
- Monthly Communities of Practice: meeting frequently with all involved individuals to ensure effectiveness and enhance plans for the future
By taking a prevention-based approach that’s guided by a mental health professional, we are effectively able to build, support, and sustain the healthy social and emotional development of young children.
What to Expect
Collaborative Conversations
We take the time to thoroughly discuss the roles of both our consultants as well as the teacher/provider who is working with the child.
Observation Exploration
Throughout your visit, we will be using various observation methods and tools to identify and prioritize the child’s concerns before setting potential goals.
Evaluations & Assessments
We will gather data about the classroom environment, the child’s behavior in the given environment, and quality interactions during our observation period.
Shared Resources
Whether it is for the classroom teacher, the program, or a family, our consultants are eager to share information, community resources, and referrals to create better outcomes for the child in question.
Child Care Council’s Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation (IECMHC) program is part of a statewide model of quality infant toddler mental health consultation.
Getting Started
In our commitment to nurturing healthy early childhood development, our infant and early childhood mental health services and resources play a pivotal role. We recognize the importance of fostering emotional and behavioral well-being in infants and toddlers for their future.
Our early childhood mental health consultants provide culturally sensitive, family-focused support to both caregivers and children. Using relationship-based practices, we work closely with caregivers, teachers, and program administrators to enhance social-emotional development and address challenging behaviors.
Request a consultation and get started today.
Mental Wellness Clinic & Resources
We’re proud to introduce our new on-site mental wellness clinic! Read more, and learn how we support children, families, and caregivers.
Resources
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