INTRODUCTION
Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation services are now available in Douglas County with the support of the Success By 6 Coalition of Douglas County and Douglas County Child Development Association. Douglas County is the recipient of a $50,000 Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation Grant from the Kansas Department of Social & Rehabilitation Services. The goal of this project is to design & implement a community-based early childhood mental health system that universally promotes healthy social and emotional development of children 0-5, prevents social and emotional problems by augmenting protective factors and mitigating risk factors that result in unhealthy development, and facilitates interventions by screening, assessing and treating children at home and in other natural settings.
DEFINITION AND GOALS
Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation (ECMHC) in early childhood settings is a problem-solving and capacity-building intervention implemented within a collaborative relationship between a professional consultant with mental health expertise and one or more individuals, primarily child care center staff; with other areas of expertise. Early childhood mental health consultation aims to build the capacity of staff, families, programs, and systems to prevent, identify, treat, and reduce the impact of mental health problems among children from birth to age 5 and their families.
The goal of early childhood mental health consultation is neither to “rescue” child care staff nor to transform them into mental health professionals. Rather, the goals are to assist staff in understanding the mental health perspective, and incorporating it into their work, and to use their own roles, skills and experience to foster positive learning and development of each child through careful observation; implement strategies that enhance learning experiences; promote social, emotional, and behavioral development of each child; build relationships and communicate with parents; and seek further consultation, when necessary.
WHAT SERVICES ARE AVAILABLE THROUGH
EARLY CHILDHOOD MENTAL HEALTH CONSULTATION?
Based on individual, family, and agency needs, ECMHC provides a range of services which may include:
- Assisting early childhood professionals and families with understanding and incorporating a mental health perspective in their own work and interactions with young children.
- Fostering positive learning and development of each child through careful observation, assessment and intervention within their natural settings.
- Educational, supportive and skill building groups and training opportunities.
- Building relationships and communication between parents, early education professionals and childcare providers.
- Reflective supervision, professional support, and team building.
- Linking families and children to available community resources.
**Services are provided by a licensed, master level clinician.
HOW DO YOU ACCESS EARLY CHILDHOOD MENTAL
HEALTH CONSULTATION SERVICES?
To enroll in services and/or to make a referral, please complete the Child Referral Form and submit to Marci Ramsay at DCCDA.
Children and families can connect with ECMHC through recommendations from:
- Family & other caregivers
- Early learning center staff
- School administrators
- Health care staff
- Outside service providers
ECMHC does not discriminate in admission to or provision of services based on religion, gender, race, color, national origin, or disability. Services are geared toward children ages 0-5.
DCCDA and ECMHC are committed to addressing the needs of children and families with diverse values, beliefs, racial and ethnic backgrounds, languages, and sexual orientation.
WHY DO WE NEED EARLY CHILDHOOD
MENTAL HEALTH CONSULTATION?
Recent neurobiological research has produced a solid base for introducing an early childhood mental health perspective into programs and systems that serve young children and their families. Neurobiologists have dramatically increased our understanding of how the brain develops during the first 3 years of life by describing the impact of environmental and biological factors on a child’s cognitive, physical, behavioral, and social development. Concurrently, research on child development and clinical practice has shown that nurturing relationships play a crucial role in facilitating young children’s social and emotional development. These bodies of knowledge provide a solid basis for introducing the mental health perspective into early childhood programs and systems (U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, 2005).
TYPES OF MENTAL HEALTH CONSULTATION
Child and Family-Centered Consultation:
Child and family-centered consultation is the most traditional form of mental health consultation. Staff initially seeks the assistance of a mental health consultant because they are worried, alarmed, or frustrated by a particular child’s behavior. The primary goal of this type of consultation is to develop a plan to address both the factors that contribute to a child’s difficulties in functioning well in the early childhood setting and the family’s role.
Programmatic Mental Health Consultation:
Mental health consultation to programs focuses on (1) improving overall quality of the program or agency and (2) assisting the program in solving a specific issue that affects more than one child, staff member, and family. Typically, the mental health consultant in early childhood settings is called on to engage staff and families in assessing a problem and designing a plan to deal with specific issues within the overall program. In programmatic mental health consultation, the consultants usually do not focus on individual children; rather, they facilitate the program’s success in reaching such objectives as developing a mental health approach to strengthen the quality of the program, including a staff development plan; developing opportunities for staff to discuss their concerns and to examine how stress affects their work; providing a forum to explore cultural differences and workplace conflicts; and providing a “safe place” in which staff members can identify, examine, and discuss their feelings about their relationships with children and families.
For More Information...
Contact Information:
Marci Ramsay, LMSW
935 Iowa, Suite 7
Lawrence, KS 66044
marci@dccda.org
Downloadable Brochure
Referral Form
Kansas Association for Infant Mental Health website |
