Prove that consultation works
Here are the evidence syntheses, evaluation designs, and outcome measures you need to document impact and keep consultation funded.
What's in this collection
Research and evaluation are essential to continue expanding the reach and impact of infant and early childhood mental health consultation (IECMHC). By gathering, analyzing, and reporting data, programs can learn about what they have been doing well, as well as what can be improved or made more efficient.
Advancing the evidence base for IECMHC: guidance for evaluators and program partners
Advancing the Evidence Base for IECMHC: This guide is intended to help programs design and implement an approach to evaluation that is intentional, realistic, and driven by their priorities.
Also check out the accompanying Interactive Evaluation Plan Worksheet.
Program evaluation tools
Program Planning and Reflection Tool (PPRT): An entire domain is devoted to program evaluation and covers: creating an evaluation team; identifying research questions; designing the evaluation; data collection & analysis; and communicating results.
Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation: An Evaluation Tool Kit: This tool kit provides guidance, tools, and resources that will assist in designing and implementing program evaluations.
Step-by-step program evaluation design guidance
Five Steps for Evaluating IECMHC: This comprehensive, step-by-step guidance helps programs design and build upon their IECMHC program evaluations.
Additional evaluation resources
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ReportThe Implementation of a Statewide Reflective Supervision Consultation Model for Infant-Early Childhood Program Professionals, Supervisors and Program Managers: Pilot Evaluation Report ReportThe San Francisco Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation Initiative (ECMHCI) Evaluation: Community Experiences (2021-2022) Webinars and eventsUsing Qualitative Data to Elevate Stakeholder Voices in Virginia’s ECMHC PilotThis workshop explores how qualitative research and evaluation can promote equity in early childhood mental health consultation (ECMHC). Often when programs and services are designed, they do not draw on lived experiences of the communities they serve which continues to promote deficit ideas about children, families, and their communities, particularly for children and families of color (O'Cathain et al., 2019). This workshop will show how qualitative research can strengthen programs and services by incorporating the voices of the communities that they are designed for. VDOE allocated federal relief dollars to fund an ECMHC pilot in early care and education (ECE) classrooms during the 2022-2023 school year in Virginia with three key objectives. The pilot was to aid ECE teachers in supporting children’s social-emotional needs in response to COVID-19, prevent suspensions and expulsions, and explore the feasibility of expanding the pilot to an eventual statewide ECMHC model (Partee et al, 2023). To understand implementation of the Virginia ECMHC pilot, we collected data using both qualitative and quantitative methods. In this presentation we will share findings and experiences from the qualitative strand of the study, specifically focusing on the insights gathered through video-cued focus groups and interviews with teachers, program directors, and families of children who received ECMHC services.