This tutorial was developed by Beth Green and Mary Dallas Allen for the Center for Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation, an Innovation and Improvement Project funded by the Office of Head Start.

About this Tutorial

Introduction
Head Start and Early Head Start program directors and administrators play an essential role in creating strong mental health services and effective strategies for mental health consultation. For mental health consultation to be most effective, it is important to view consultation as just one part of supporting a program’s overall approach to child, family and staff mental health. Program leadership is critical to developing and implementing this program-wide mental health perspective. Program leaders can support mental health consultation both directly (through designing, hiring, and supporting mental health consultants) and indirectly, by creating a program context that is a foundation for effective consultation.

Purpose and Overall Goal
The purpose of this tutorial is to support Head Start and Early Head Start program directors and administrators to develop and implement a vision and strategic plan for a program-wide approach to mental health and mental health consultation. Administrators will learn how to ensure more effective mental health consultation by facilitating staff-consultant relationships and providing support and oversight to mental health consultants.

Learning Objectives
After completing this tutorial, you will be able to:

• Objective 1: Work with your program’s staff, families and community partners to develop a program-wide mental health vision.
• Objective 2: Describe a step-by-step process for developing, implementing, and maintaining a mental health-specific strategic plan for your program.
• Objective 3: Understand the administrative role in implementing a mental health strategic plan by creating organizational readiness, supporting staff-consultant relationships, and providing oversight for mental health consultation services.

Tutorial Organization
This tutorial is organized into the following sections:

1. Pre-Test: A short quiz to assess your pre-training familiarity with this tutorial content;
2. Training modules: Individual modules on key learning areas and brief activities and exercises to reinforce key concepts.
3. Post-Test: A short quiz to assess what you learned throughout the training;
4. Additional Resources: Materials to further support learning and professional development on the topics discussed in this tutorial;
5. Take home messages: A brief synopsis of key messages presented.
6. References

We recommend that you navigate the sections sequentially.

Getting Started

Time Commitment
This tutorial is designed to take about 20-30 minutes to complete, although timing may vary from person to person. We recommend completing the training one sitting, but if this is not possible, you can easily pick up where you left off at a later time.

Materials Needed
Other than a computer, you will not need any materials to complete this training. You may want to keep a pen/pencil and paper handy to take notes, or have access to a printer to print items that are of particular interest to you.

Glossary
Throughout this tutorial there may be words or terminology that may be new to you.  Please check our glossary by clicking on the direct link at the top of the page or in the left margin.  The glossary will open in a new window.

Questions?
If you have any questions or technical difficulties, please email us. Thank you and we hope you enjoy the training.

Next Steps

Take the Pre-Test, or start the tutorial.