Build the consultant workforce
This shelf helps anyone who staffs consultation in a single program or a state system. It holds role definitions, hiring guidance, MOUs, and the workforce landscape.
What's in this collection
This section explores the competencies, training, supervision, mentoring, and quality assurance systems needed to build a strong IECMHC workforce and deliver high-quality IECMHC services.
Workforce development planning
Program Planning and Reflection Tool (PPRT): This program-level online assessment tool helps users evaluate progress in key IECMHC program implementation areas while providing guidance on how to put these elements into place. An entire domain is devoted to workforce and covers: recruiting & hiring, initial training, ongoing professional development, clinical/reflective supervision, service delivery support, and workforce retention.
Recruiting and hiring IECMH consultants
Hiring Guidance: This e-learning module is designed to support IECMHC program managers in the hiring process of IECMH consultants.
Training curriculum guidance
Curriculum Guidelines for Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation: Building on the CoE’s IECMHC Competencies, this resource helps programs create comprehensive training standards and content to develop a strong IECMH consultant workforce.
Cultural and Linguistic Competence Self-Assessment Checklists: These tools are designed to assist managers and administrators in assessing the extent to which they demonstrate integration of cultural and linguistic competence into values, attitudes, communication styles, and the physical environment.
Professional development resources
Foundational Modules: These eight modules are designed to support Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultants in their professional development, and can be viewed in any order.
Beyond the 101: IECMHC Lessons: This trio of online learning modules explores best practice in IECMHC with regard to equity, supporting infants and toddlers, and working with families in a meaningful and effective way.
Materials for field use
Teaching Tools for Young Children with Challenging Behavior: This resource is designed for use by teachers and offers easily accessible ideas and materials to support children in the classroom and other learning environments.
Consultant supervision, support, and retention
Sustaining IECMH Consultants in their Jobs: Once a mental health professional has been successfully recruited and trained to provide IECMHC services, a management team’s priority becomes retaining that now well-trained consultant.
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HandoutTalk Back To Your Unhelpful ThoughtsA two-page handout that names common unhelpful thinking patterns and gives a way to challenge each one. GuideInfant Mental Health Specialists and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation Webinars and events2022 CoE Conference (Plenary Session): CoE Highlight State of the State, Community, Tribal Nation, and TerritoryPlenary session discussing approaches in equity and reflective supervision. Webinars and events2022 CoE Conference (Workshop Session): Enhancing the IECMHC’s Toolbox to Talk to Children About RaceIn the past two years, IECMHCs have had to expand their responsibilities to address the stressors of the COVID and racial pandemics. In particular, teachers and caregivers have had to have conversations with young children about the racial divide and race, which for some was something that they were unprepared or unsure of how to discuss with young children. Conversations about race should be a part of the IECMHC role and integrated under the foundational knowledge and culture competencies of the IECMHC. This presentation will incorporate an accumulation of lessons learned from serving as an IECMHC, teaching diversity classes, and reviewing current literature, to provide other IECMHCs with tools and resources on how to have developmentally appropriate conversations about race, with young children. Webinars and events2022 CoE Conference (Workshop Session): Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation as a Support for Children in Foster CareThis workshop covers special considerations for Mental Health Consultants serving children in the foster care system. Webinars and events2022 CoE Conference (Workshop Session): Inspiring Equity & Inclusion with IECMHCInfant & Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation (IECMH-C) in Ohio is finding new ways to improve equity and inclusion. We know the earlier the social, emotional, mental, and behavioral health needs of children are addressed the better the outcomes. Ohio’s IECMH-C Model addresses the needs of the individual child facing expulsion and improves the relational health amongst peers while promoting adult wellness. An IECMH Consultant & Master Trainer with 20+ years in the field and a visionary Childcare Center Director will explore how we are working together to put policy into practice. Webinars and events2022 CoE Conference: Conversations around Culture: Creating Safe & Brave SpaceWe are developing an IECMH consultation program centered around providing reflective support to the early childhood workforce. We have found that our model eases stress related to COVID-19 and its impact on all of us. Our model and practice is ever evolving based on the needs of the community in order expand on the capacity of the participants to care for themselves, each other, the children they are serving, and their community. Our target audience would be other mental health consultants, and program leaders, who are looking to find ways to shift and mold their practice to meet the needs of the community they serve while also cultivating a culture of wellness. We are infusing equity into our work by eliciting the ancient wisdom already present within participants to find ways to intentionally care for themselves and each other, to explore the implicit bias and cultural values that arise naturally with building relationships. Brief5 Essential Elements of Effective Anti-Bias Professional Development for Mental Health Consultants Brief5 Essential Elements of Effective Professional Development for Mental Health ConsultantsThis report sets out the essential elements of effective professional development in IECMHC as a practical checklist. GuideA Day in the Life of an Early Childhood Mental Health Consultant: A Series of Real-life VignettesThis resource contains a series of real-life vignettes that describe the different phases of the work that a MHC may encounter in the course of an average day. Reflective questions are included that make this a great resource for on-boarding a new consultant. Webinars and eventsAdvancing Anti bias Practices in IECMHC Through Reflective SupervisionIn 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 whole-person, long-term learning approach informed by equity, diversity, and inclusion. Next, we will share voices from the field (consultants) on how reflective supervision helps deepen self-awareness of one’s 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. Webinars and eventsAffirmed, Valued, Esteemed: AVEnue to Equity in ECE WorkforceThe 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). Coming out of a global pandemic, many of these educators face unprecedented complexity in everyday life, both at work and at home. 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 building an effective ECE workforce through system-wide changes that offer individualized personal and professional development, such as life coaching.