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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TemplateSAMPLE JOB DESCRIPTION: EARLY CHILDHOOD MENTAL HEALTH CONSULTANT GuideShadowing and Reflection Guide BriefSustaining Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultants in Their JobsOnce a mental health professional has been successfully recruited and trained to provide infant and early childhood mental health consultation (IECMHC) services, a management team’s priority becomes retaining that now well-trained consultant. This resource brief will discuss key programmatic features that support worker satisfaction and bolster retention efforts. HandoutTaking Care of Yourself When Caring for Children Affected by TraumaIn partnership with Illuminate Colorado and the University of California, San Francisco’s Child Trauma Research Program, the Thrive Center developed a set of handouts tailored for early care and education (ECE) settings. These handouts, available in English and Spanish, explore substance use and childhood trauma, and how ECE professionals can support the children and families they serve who are affected by these challenges. IECMH Consultants can share these short, colorful resources with their consultees to address these sensitive topics in an accessible, compassionate way. This specific handout provides helpful self-care tips for individuals who care for children affected by trauma.Taking Care of Yourself When Caring for Children Affected by Trauma (Spanish) Webinars and eventsThe Essential Role of Peer Support in Embedding Equity, Systems Building, and Workforce DevelopmentAssociations 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 how they supported and led 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; and lessons learned in state systems-building work. ReportThe Implementation of a Statewide Reflective Supervision Consultation Model for Infant-Early Childhood Program Professionals, Supervisors and Program Managers: Pilot Evaluation Report BriefTraining and Workforce Development Activities that Prepare and Support IECMH ConsultantsDescribes a range of opportunities and approaches to MHC training, broken down by practice environments and targeted to different levels of MHC experience HandoutUsing Reflection to Nurture Relationships with Children, Families, and StaffIn partnership with Illuminate Colorado and the University of California, San Francisco’s Child Trauma Research Program, the Thrive Center developed a set of handouts tailored for early care and education (ECE) settings. These handouts, available in English and Spanish, explore substance use and childhood trauma, and how ECE professionals can support the children and families they serve who are affected by these challenges. IECMH Consultants can share these short, colorful resources with their consultees to address these sensitive topics in an accessible, compassionate way. This specific handout explains how to use reflection to develop relationships with children, families, and staff.Using Reflection to Nurture Relationships with Children, Families, and Staff (Spanish) Webinars and eventsWebinar: Creating Anti-Racist SpacesNow, more than ever it is important to address issues of race and bias in early childhood settings. Children notice race at a very early age and can begin to categorize people according to skin color. This webinar presents strategies for creating an anti-racist environment to promote the development of healthy racial identities. Webinars and eventsWindows of Reflection: Johari’s Window in Reflective SupervisionExplore 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 use Johari's window to write 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. Webinars and eventsYou are my other meIn their workshop, “You Are My Other Me,” First-Generation and BIPOC-affirming practitioners Sunny Cho and Jenny Lopez look at what Reflective Consultation Groups can do in Infant & Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation. By intertwining their personal stories, both will share on the inception, design, implementation, and evaluation of virtual Reflective Consultation Groups offered across early education centers throughout California, since the inception of the COVID-19 global pandemic to present. Both will reflect openly on how Reflective Consultation Groups have evolved alongside their own growth. Their focus now is a supportive community for early education professionals, emotional respite, and brave dialogues around collective grief and loss, racial trauma, and systematic oppression. Sunny and Jenny aim to inspire fellow consultants to embrace Reflective Group Consultation as a tool for both personal and collective growth, and helpful in promoting a culture of wellness among early childhood education communities. The workshop stresses co-leading Reflective Consultation Groups as a deliberate practice that strengthens workforce development and long-term sustainability.