2023 CoE Conference Videos

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Speakers:

• Misty Cole
• Angie Gibbs

Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation is a foundational service that supports multiple services, often across multiple systems. Join Dr. Angie Gibbs, Hopewell Health Centers, and Misty Cole, from the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services in a discussion regarding the Ohio expansion of Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation across Ohio Systems, including Early Intervention, Federally Qualified Health Centers, and the Oho Department of Education.

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Speaker:

• Stephanie Gomez

In 2020, the Sacramento County Office of Education partnered with the Sacramento County Department of Health Services to place a mental health clinician in each of our 385 public schools in our County. The Early Childhood Education department envisioned this would be an excellent opportunity to expand ECMH Consultation services in the county, as California was beginning to expand Transitional Kindergarten throughout the state, bringing an increasing number of 4-year-olds onto public school sites. Attempting to integrate Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation services into a large, expanding school-based mental health and wellness grant has presented many challenges, setbacks and successes that the speaker will share. Among them, she will discuss the process of adapting Dr. Linda Gilkerson's ""Facilitating Attuned iNteractions"" (FAN) Model as a framework for partnering with complex systems to support reflection, listening to others, collaborative exploration and beginning steps towards capacity building of mental health clinicians in an educational setting. The presenter will share outcomes of her initial professional development workshop and exciting opportunities to expand ECMH consultation through Sacramento County in the coming years to address early childhood inequities and bias toward boys of color. Participants will be given the opportunity to reflect on how core principles and practices of IECMHC may be integrated into their work with complex systems.

Target Audience: IECMH Consultants who work with complex systems.

Speakers:

• Dominique Calloway
• Amber Smith-Williams, MA, M.Ed., LPC, RDT

This workshop will provide information on how to interact, partner with, and value families and children who are culturally, racially, and linguistically diverse. Strategies will include, (a) how to utilize self-assessment to improve diverse classroom experiences, (b) how to reach families where there is a perception of apathy, and (c) interactive strategies for practical application to deepen awareness and knowledge in order to enhance and improve skillsets.

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Speakers:

• Allison Trigg
• Kendyl Brunet
• Angela Keyes
• Sherryl Heller

This presentation will describe recent program evaluation findings of the statewide TIKES IECMHC program in Louisiana. TIKES examined how teachers’ perceptions of children’s behavior and the behavior of the whole class changed after working with a TIKES consultant.

After six months of participating in the TIKES IECMHC model of consultation, teachers reported increases in child protective factors, decreases in child and classroom behavioral concerns including behaviors related to increased likelihood of expulsion, and decreases in their levels of stress and hopelessness after consultation. Notably, pre-consultation teacher stress was related to their perception of child behavior, with teachers reporting moderate to high levels of stress demonstrating changes in their perception of challenging behaviors.

This research highlights the importance of recognizing and responding to early childhood educators’ needs and stress levels, with particular emphasis on the impact of the identities they hold, so that they can provide high quality care for infant and young children. Moreover, we will discuss how TIKES research findings inform our work and is an integral component to our model, while also highlighting previous research related to ECE educator stress, its contributors, and its impacts on young children, specifically in terms of teacher-child relationship building and disparities in rates of suspension and expulsion. Importantly, the researchers will discuss lessons learned related to appropriate methods of measuring demographic variables such as race and gender in teacher-reported program evaluation to better capture the mechanism by which IECMHC impacts the diverse consultees that the TIKES program serves. We believe this presentation will be of interest to program evaluators, program directors, and mental health consultants interested in learning more about how IECMHC and IECMHC evaluation works.

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Speakers:

• Jennifer Hughes
• Lisa Negrini
• Toshiko Pinckney"

Speakers of this session will share the experiences of a grass roots approach to fund the only infant and early childhood mental health consultation programing in their community. The presentation is targeted to professionals who do not have funding or support for consultation services in their state or community, are launching new programs, or those who are looking at how other programs are advancing equity in their agencies. As Florida legislators have failed to recognize the IECMHC model as a viable funding option and direct dollars elsewhere, it is up to service delivery professionals to take action locally and find ways to educate, promote and fund services. This session will share the steps taken to increase equity and decrease disparities through the consultation model in preschool homes and centers, despite the major hurdles to success. Presenters will share their steps to building a workforce, creating local acceptance of the concept and potential outcomes, and finally accessing major funding to start two new consultation programs. Participants can expect to hear about potential new ways to educate their community on the benefits and outcomes of the IECMHC model, identify ways to infuse equity into IECMHC programming, and how to promote the model as a major contributor to equity changes and initiatives in their own communities.

Speakers:

• Hoda Shawky
• David Willis, MD
• Mary Mackrain"

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Speakers:

• Tameka Thompson, LPC
• Elisha Gandhi, LCSW"

This presentation examines the disproportionate rate of African American boys and other children of color represented in Pre-K suspensions, expulsions and discrimination throughout the nation. We break down our specific approach to mental-health consultation for these populations in Texas. We demonstrate the common barriers faced in our centers as well as how we utilize social-emotional skills to connect with and support all staff and families connected to these centers. Our presentation shows a typical day in our role, what we have found most effective in helping teachers to understand biases and prejudices and how we measure these outcomes.

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Speaker:

• Robert Harris

Explore how the inclusion of Johari's Window in reflective supervision and practices could help increase reflective capacity, and deepen the reflective practice experience. During this session participants will explore the idea of reflective capacity as a skill to be strengthened and developed. Participants will also directly utilize Johari's window to generate prompts that encourage reflection and self-awareness. The Center of Excellence for IECMHC shares the following on reflective practice "Reflective practice helps staff members understand their own reactions to the children and families with whom they work and help them to use this self-awareness to develop strategies to enrich their work." By introducing tools to encourage self-awareness those who participate in reflective practice provide greater opportunities to generate enriched strategies that benefit children and families.

Recording not available.

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Speakers:

• Rosario Williams
• Denise Torres

This presentation will provide an overview of a Community of Practice (CoP) Framework that is utilized to engaged staff, providers, and leaders in conversations of Equity. Participants will engaged in experiential "Protocols" to understand how these tools can be applied in the workplace in order to engage in meaningful collaboration and support in problem solving. In addition, participants will develop and understanding of how the work of an Early Childhood Education (ECE) Community of Practice can serve to leverage cultural/organizational changes and address pressing issues.

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Speakers:

• Elizabeth Groginsky
• Kassandra Gonzales

During this informative session, you will learn about New Mexico's process of developing a statewide IECMHC Program. You will hear from NM Early Childhood Education and Care Departments Cabinet Secretary, and her vision to bring an IECMHC program to New Mexico. In addition, the early consideration in developing an extensive and sustainable IECMHC Program. The IECMHC Program Coordinator will also discuss the implementation of NM IECMHC Program. There will be an opportunity for questions at the end of the session.

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Speakers:

• Eva Marie Shivers
• Natasha Pérez Byars
• Jayley Janssen

"Our hope for this session is to offer participants an opportunity to reflect on how we might move together (and sometimes separately) to transform our work in IECMHC by applying and embodying a strong anti-racist lens. Much of our work at Indigo Cultural Center is informed by the IECMHC workforce who identify as Black, Indigenous or as persons of color (BIPOC). Accepting and remaining open to recommendations that flow from BIPOC voices represents a major departure from the way most of our IECMH field has been shaped over the past 70 years. The racial dynamics that are particularly unique to our current charge of transformation can bring up concerns of safety and comfort for many.

However, we also know through the tenets and canon of the IECMH field that discomfort is necessary for growth. Indeed, Resmaa Menakem reminds us that “We learn and grow up by experiencing discomfort, accepting it, moving through it, and coming out the other side. In the process, we metabolize the discomfort— and, paradoxically, it disappears. When we don't allow ourselves discomfort, we don't permit emergence or growth” (Menakem, 2017).

In summary, our objectives for this session are to review social justice language and frameworks that guide much of our work and to provide tangible examples of how the healing justice movement is being applied (and can be applied) to our work in IECMHC. This workshop – including the frameworks, examples, and recommendations we would like to share are offered in a spirit of growth and a co-envisioned future where we can all experience liberation and healing.

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Speakers:

• Kelli Celsor
• Erin Henderson Lacerdo
• Ashley Bowers

Associations of Infant Mental Health (AIMHs) have become a workforce development hub for the infant and early childhood mental health workforce in their states. AIMHs unite the allied early childhood workforce and partners across sectors by means of the IECMH Endorsement system. Because of this influence, AIMHs are uniquely positioned to support developing and expanding IECMH Consultation systems. Three AIMHs – AIMH HI, WI-AIMH, and AIMHiTN – share our journey in supporting and leading the development of an IECMHC framework from the ground up in their respective states.

This workshop will explore:

• The role of an AIMH as the professional development home for IECMH with emphasis on the opportunity for AIMHs to partner in IECMHC systems-building work.
• The collaborative partnership between our state AIMHs and the peer support network provided by that partnership
• Common IECMHC workforce development challenges and how AIMHs can build the capacity of IECMH Consultants by means of the Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Endorsement system
• How IECMH Endorsement can be a mechanism toward a more equitable and accessible pathway to IECMHC for both the workforce and for families
• Lessons learned in state systems-building work

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Speakers:

• Sherryl Heller
• Leah Eckley
• Evandra Catherine
• Jordyn Rand

In this presentation participants will engage in an in-depth conversation about the ways that IECHMC can be a disrupter of bias, specifically through reflective supervision. First, participants will be provided with an understanding and definition of anti-bias consultation, followed by a brief overview of the Reflective Supervision for the Whole Job and the Whole Organization framework developed by the Reflective Supervision Collaborative (RSC). The framework is a holistic, equity, diversity, and inclusion-informed, long-term learning approach Next, we will share voices from the field (consultants) on the ways that reflective supervision offers opportunities for deepening one’s self-awareness bias and assumptions, with an emphasis on the core processes within the RSC framework. We will also share a few practical strategies that supervisors can use in their role as a disrupters of bias and how their role influence the parallel process between consultant and consultee. Lastly, participants will hear from an IECMHC provider’s efforts around commitment to and action towards disrupting bias. In addition to the above content, participants will watch a mock supervisor session on how consultants can have a conversation with teachers’ of color use of unsupportive emotional responses with Black boys.

Speakers:

• Michelle Hammack
• Jayley Janssen
• Tawanna Jennings

Outcomes of IECMHC are protection and promotion of health and well-being of children and adults. However, the early closure of consultation relationships severely limits these expected outcomes. Notably, the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically changed the early care and education (ECE) landscape and exacerbated structural challenges. These lasting disruptions impacted the capacities and functioning of families, ECE programs and providers. In addition, disruptions led to a “mass exodus” of educators from the field (Harry et al., 2022; Eadie et al., 2021). Thus, examining the current landscape of early closures in this “pandemic to endemic” era (the era following the height of COVID-19) and identifying factors that foster the continuation of consultation is essential. Using data from South Carolina's PEAR network collected with 80 ECE sites in 2020-2023, we present the landscape of early closures via the proportion of sites that “completed” consultation and the reasons for early closures (e.g., child expulsion, teacher turnover). Further, we explore factors contributing to early closures via attrition analyses and expert anecdotal evidence from PEAR consultants.

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Speakers:

• Lisa Schlueter
• Christine O'Brien
• Ashley Sward

Colorado offers ECMH Consultation services anywhere children age birth to 6 years learn and grow, including elementary schools, home visitation, child welfare, public health, health care, home settings, and more. This presentation will discuss how consultation has been expanded and successfully implemented in settings outside childcare. Two settings with established programs will discuss how the need for early childhood mental health consultation was determined and what programming resulted from those needs. Featured programs include Enhanced Home Visiting and Warm Connections which offers mental health consultation at Woman, Infants and Children (WIC) clinics. The demographics of the families and professionals served will be highlighted along with how each program has incorporated practices and policies that are culturally and linguistically responsive. Programs will also address the workforce providing the consultation: how they were recruited and trained. Additionally, program components along with barriers and opportunities will be discussed. Finally, evaluation results and learnings will be shared which highlight program future directions.

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Speakers:

• Laura Latta
• Kaya Swann, MSW, LMSW
• Nyrobi Tyson

In the IECMHC field, it is well known that Black boys in early childhood settings are suspended or expelled at much higher rates than their White counterparts, and IECMHC is linked with reduced suspension and expulsion rates. However, less attention is paid to where IECMHC services are provided, who is included, and who is left out. To ensure the gap between Black and White children’s suspension and expulsion rates does not further widen, the Parent, Infant, Early Childhood (PIEC) team completed an equity mapping research project for Maryland’s IECMHC programs. The aim of this work was to identify where IECMHC services were delivered across Maryland in the context of where child care programs are locatedand historically underserved children, including Black and Latinx children and children in poverty lived, from July 2017 through December 2020. During the presentation, we will explore both the static maps that overlay where IECMH consultation services were provided in the context of the socio-demographic and childcare data for the state. Additionally, we will share the reflective questions programs use when reviewing the maps. These reflective questions are aimed to help participants explore trends in the distribution of services; discuss root causes for existing inequities; and think of recommendations at the programmatic and systems level. Our target audiences are IECMH consultants, IECMH program directors, researchers, policymakers, funders, and any others who are interested in IECMH and equity in IECMH services.

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Speakers:

• Kelli Celsor
• Katherine Bell
• Taylor Thurnau

"When you have the right people at the right time doing the right thing, magic happens.” The story of Tennessee’s IECMHC work is one of relationships. Though our state’s journey with IECMHC is still in its infancy, TN’s Infant Mental Health community has long been at work laying the foundation for what we are doing today. This workshop is for those involved in building systems and programs, those preparing to implement or in initial stages of program implementation, and IECMH or Early Childhood service providers. This workshop will detail: The history of TN’s Infant Mental Health work and explore the relationships, opportunities, and cross-sector partnerships that paved the way for IECMHC The role of the ZTT IECMH Financing Policy initiative in our IECMH work, state collaborative councils, and current partnerships at work in IECMH Consultation Coordinating Council The funding streams leveraged Current IECMHC initiatives at the state and local level Program scale up and expansion as well as workforce recruitment and preparation How equity may be embedded in IECMHC, with an in-depth focus on family engagement, exclusionary discipline practices, and mitigating disproportionality What is on the horizon for IECMHC in Tennessee and lessons learned along the journey

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Speakers:

• Margaret Mosca
• Karen Robbins

"Infusing a DEIB Lens: Growth Edges and Celebrations" In the recent evolution of Caregiver Connections' Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation (ECMHC) program, we have begun trying to infuse a DEIB Lens in each area of the work we do as a program. In this presentation we will be focusing on the work that we have done, and the lessons we have learned to strengthen and build our infrastructure. In order to understand where we are and where we want to go, we also need to understand where we’ve been. This presentation will walk you along the journey of our process, including what we did well and where we have to grow. Telling our story this way will allow other mental health consultation programs to evaluate their own process and structure, in hopes to enhance their DEIB practices.

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Speakers:

• Rachel Stein

Challenging behavior is developmentally expected for young children; however, adult perceptions influence our understanding and response. Through this perceptive process bias enters our evaluations which is documented in the language adults used to describe children’s behavior (e.g., defiant, willful). Participants in this session will gain understanding of the role and impact of adult perception in addressing young children’s challenging behaviors. Participants will become familiar with strategies and tools to confront their own biases and potentially biased practices and consider how to apply tools and strategies within consultative relationships.

Speakers:

• Corinna Crandall, LMFT, IMHE (she/her)

Join me as I explore how training as a mental health professional supports the work of an Infant/Early Childhood Mental Health Consultant. What clinical skills are used in the everyday work of an IECMHC? How does clinical training inform the IECMHC in conceptualizing each unique situation and forming next steps? Does an IECMHC need to be trained as a mental health professional to do this work? I invite you to reflect with me as the need for IECMHCs continues to increase, yet the availability of viable candidates remains a challenge.

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Speakers:

• Grace Schoessow
• Lillian McCree
• Lindsay Green

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on children and families- deepening disparities and inequities. Sadly, some families with young children have been left behind- disconnected from vital developmental, educational and health services. This session will highlight cross sector partnerships between IECMHC and community providers seeking to re-engage families with infants and toddlers with complex needs. Join us for stories and insights into how the IECMHC role is helping support and guide innovative efforts to improve equity in early care in Ohio.

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Speakers:

• La'Tasha Lee
• Christine Brambila

The presentations foundation is derived from Dr. Katherine M. Zinsser’s' research on Illinois preschool suspension and expulsion. In the research, of the Early Childhood professionals and providers that have expelled young children, "Nearly 40% had never heard of IECMHC and made at least one expulsion during that same year". The Illinois Governor's Office of Early Childhood Development utilized Governor's Emergency Education Relief (GEER) funds to generate content to inform a multimedia and multi-lingual raising awareness campaign. This raising awareness campaign efforts focused on the diverse audiences including, Family Child Care Homes, program leaders, Head Start/Early Head start, administrators, parents/families/caregivers, state leaders, higher education and IECMH consultants. This raising awareness campaign consist of new resources that provide key information for Consultation in Infant and Early Childhood Education and Care programs. These concise and informative one-pagers (16 in total) and videos are available in multiple languages and tailored for specific audiences. Whether you are a leader or administrator of home visiting, preschool, and center-based child care programs, the parent or a family member of children in need of services, a stakeholder in childhood education and care, or someone who is looking to begin a fulfilling new career. This session will describe efforts to engage cross-system partners such as Early Intervention, Head Start/Early Head Start, Home visitors, child care, and our state board of education programs-prevention initiatives, preschool for all and preschool for all expansion. Equity is at the forefront of project from the multilingual and diverse audiences which considers multiple perspectives. Intentional efforts and cross-sector stakeholders were used to design and develop the one-pagers and videos, which takes into consideration provider representation, diverse family structures and how providers saw themselves in the videos. We were able to partner with families, providers, etc. to ensure their voices and experiences informed the design and implementation of the Raising awareness materials. Ensured equitable access and distribution of resources.

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Speakers:

• Sandy Avzaradel
• Rhysa Suh
• Kim Versluis

Infant/Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation is founded on the "Consultative Stance" which is centered on building, nourishing, and maintaining positive and responsive relationships with the adults we are directly working with and those (adults and children) who are indirectly impacted by our work. Participants will learn that by implementing all components of the Consultative Stance, you will be providing culturally responsive supports to better serve our families as outlined in the Diversity Informed Tenets.

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Speakers:

• Angela Wilson
• Brenda Williamson
• Valerie Jarvis McMillan

The well-being, equitable support, and retention of Early Childhood educators is in urgent need of intentionally focused attention, especially for educators who identify as Black, Brown, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC). On the heels of a global pandemic, many of these educators are navigating unprecedented complexities of everyday life, both professionally and personally. BIPOC educators are adversely impacted by numerous intersectionalities that can lead to confining states of personal and emotional distress. “Pervasive structural inequities across the early care and education workforce have been deepened by the pandemic, with Black, Hispanic, and Native American populations experiencing higher rates of COVID-19 infection, hospitalization, and morbidity (Mude et al., 2021). Job stress, burnout, and depressive symptoms are commonly reported by early educators and are associated with both diminished quality of learning environments and high job turnover.” (Johnson et al., 2020). The presenters strongly believe that providing personal development support such as Life Coaching, will positively impact outcomes not only for the educators, but for their students as well. Emotionally healthy educators who feel affirmed, valued, and esteemed, are capable of supporting the emotional/social development of young learners. They are also more likely to grow in their teaching practice as they experience greater job satisfaction and increased teacher effectiveness. This session will highlight overlooked issues and concerns that adversely impact many BIPOC early educators' mental and emotional well-being, and overall teaching performance. We will also explore the benefits of developing an effective ECE workforce by implementing comprehensive system changes that can provide individualized personal and professional development opportunities such as life coaching.