Infant & Early Childhood Mental Health (IECMH) Consultation in the Department of Children and Youth (DCY) 

Early Childhood Mental Health in State Support Teams work (SST) is a partnership of the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce (DEW) and the Ohio Department of Children and Youth (DCY). This project aims to expand the capacity of DEW’s 16 State Support Teams and most specifically, Early Learning and School Readiness (ELSR) Consultants, SST teams, and district partners through the provision of Early Childhood Mental Health Programmatic Consultation (ECMHC).

IECMH Consultation in State Support Teams 

ECMHC objectives are to build protective factors in young children, increase skills of caregivers, and promote the competencies of early childhood providers, especially for children ages birth to six years who are at risk for abuse, neglect, and poor social and emotional health. ECMHC targets the healthy social and emotional development of all young children in Ohio to ensure they thrive and are ready for school. ECMH consultants team with professionals and caregivers to build capacity to promote social emotional development, respond to challenging behavior, and promote adult resilience and wellness.

SST ECMH Consultants maintain a systemic approach to consultation and aim for program-wide impact through a focus on the overall quality and equity of programs or settings serving infants, young children, and families. Consultants work to enhance programmatic functioning by assisting program administrators and/or staff in considering the program or settings overall social and emotional climate; solving issues that affect more than one infant or young child, staff member, and/or family; collecting and using disaggregated data, and supporting the development and implementation of policies that create more equitable experiences for infants, young children, and families. At its core, this project aims to support the adults who support our youngest learners.

IECMH Consultation in Child Care Resource & Referral (CCR&R) Infrastructure 

Ohio’s Department of Children and Youth and Child Care Resource and Referrals (CCR&R) across the State joined forces to support Ohio’s Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health initiative to expand access to Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health and the social emotional lens within Child Care Resource and Referrals across the state. As a result of this initiative, Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health (IECMH) Consultants are joining Ohio Child Care Resource and Referral Teams, assisting in promoting the expansion of IECMH Consultation within the service delivery area. 

Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health (IECMH) Consultants and Child Resource and Referral Teams work together to support the CCR&R initiatives. To promote these priority strategies and components of the whole child framework and their connections to early childhood, IECMH Consultants will: 

1. Increase focus on and support for social-emotional wellness of children & adults

When at their best, IECMH Consultants & CCR&R Specialists, like providers and administrators, are generally passionate about their work, invested in using best practices & knowledgeable and willing to learn how to best provide for the needs of the whole child. Unfortunately, the stressors of life & work often interfere with professionals performing at their best. Understanding this concept and using the general principles of the parallel process, IECMH Consultants will assist Child Care and Resource and Referral Teams in developing outcomes for increasing adult resilience both of staff within the CCR&R and partner childcare providers. Resources & strategies used in this process will be available to CCR&R Specialists for use with programs and providers to support & encourage the implementation of staff wellness so that they can support adult resilience & staff wellness within the programs they support. 

2. Provide cross service foundational supports that strengthen positive caregiver relationships. 

CCR&R Specialists work each day supporting programs and providers in promoting positive caregiver relationships. In order to build the capacity of CCR&R Specialists to support positive caregiver relationships, IECMH Consultants will be added to the CCR&R Team to connect with team goals, identify strengths of the team and provide supportive resources & strategies to infuse into the routines and practices of CCR&R Specialists. Connecting CCR&R Specialists to resources within each community to meet the needs of caregivers as well as sharing strategies for responding to challenging childcare provider-child-family relationships will increase the capacity of CCR&R Specialists to build this capacity across the service delivery area. 

3. Fill service gaps of infant and early childhood mental health care by providing awareness, prevention, intervention, and wellness 

Each regional Child Care Resource and Referral has unique initiatives & priorities that guide their work. IECMH Consultants work with CCR&R to align initiatives and priorities with mental health supports within local communities. In order to support CCR&Rs, IECMHC are familiar with social emotional development, child development, trauma and mental health. Together, IECMHC in CCR&R determine how to best utilize IECMH programmatic consultation to support regional CCR&R initiatives & priorities in order to fill the service gaps of infant and early childhood mental health care.

IECMH Consultants are tasked with connecting to local resources within each CCR&R community in order to connect staff and programs supported by the CCR&R to infant and early childhood mental health systems of support as well as tools and strategies to support the promotion of infant and early childhood mental health. Working together IECMH Consultants and CCR&R Specialists will fill service gaps within each service delivery area promoting awareness, prevention, intervention and wellness in infant and early childhood mental health.