“Early Childhood Mental Health is not the absence of mental illness, but rather the presence of a feeling of safety and emotional security, comfort in connecting with trusted others, confidence in one’s developmental trajectory, an expectation that dependency needs will be met, and an assumption of one’s right to move, explore, communicate.”
~WestEd (2019). Program for Infant Toddler Care
Infant & Toddler Mental Health Consultation (ITMHC)
ITMHC is a Project through NYS ECLC (Early Childhood Learning Council) together with CCCR&R, NY Center for Child Development and Docs for Tots that provides intervention benefiting infants and toddlers, by providing a service in partnership with adult caregivers in their lives. The overall goal is to improve “the ability of staff, families, program, and systems to prevent, identify, treat, and reduce the impact of mental health problems” The ITMHC project focuses on children 0-3 years of age.
“Change occurs within the content of the relationships.”
~Hunter, A., Davis, Al, Perry, D.F.K. Hones, W. (2016)
“Recent Research shows {early childhood mental health consultation} to be cost-effective for reducing the challenging behaviors that often lead to expulsions and suspensions while building teachers’ skills sets… If the supportive consultation could be provided within the infant and toddler years-before preschool-that would be ideal.” ~ Dr. Walter Gilliam (2014)
“Mental Health Consultation has been shown to improve children’s social skills and emotional functioning, provide healthy relationships, reduce challenging behaviors, reduce the number of suspensions and expulsions, improve classroom quality, and reduce provider stress, burnout and turnover.” ~ SAMHSA (2016)
