Pivoting in a Pandemic
COVID-19 has had a significant impact on the practice of infant and early childhood mental health consultation (IECMHC) as well as on early childhood providers, infants, young children, and families. The worldwide health crisis has exposed and exacerbated longstanding inequities. Specifically, the pandemic’s unveiling of structural injustices in employment, health care, and education has brought much-needed attention to racial disproportionality, especially for African Americans and Native Americans (Indigenous). For both experienced and inexperienced infant and early childhood mental health (IECMH) consultants, the pandemic and resulting changes in how recipients of consultation, infants, young children, and families are served have presented unique challenges in the provision of consultation.