Project Description
Our interdisciplinary team of infant and early childhood mental health specialists provides training throughout Southern California for mental health professionals who want to increase their knowledge and skills for working with children ages birth to five years and their families.
Topics for Mental Health Professionals:
- Best Practices in Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health
- Brain Development and Implications for Attachment
- Eww Gross! A Family-Centered Approach to Picky Eating and More
- Infant-Family Mental Health for Medically Fragile Infants and Young Children
- Navigating the System of Care for Young Children with Special Needs
- Reflective Practice Facilitation for Supervisors
- Sensory Integration: Application to Young Children with Mental Health Needs
- Trauma Response in Infants
- Typical and Atypical Development in Young Children
Topics for Wider Audiences:
- Bilingual Language Development in Young Children
- Early Screening, Better Outcomes: Developmental Screening and Linkage
- Holding the Dyad: Integrating an Infant Mental Health Perspective into Non-Clinical Settings
- Impact of Race and Racism on Infants and their Families
- Little People Have Big Feelings
- Promoting Family Resilience in Difficult Times
- Promoting Positive Behaviors in Early Learning
- Treating the Whole Child
Agencies and Entities Trained:
- American Academy of Pediatrics local chapters
- Aprendamos (New Mexico)
- California Association for Infant Mental Health (CalAIMH)
- Center for Developing Kids
- Children’s Institute
- East Los Angeles Regional Center
- First Five LA
- Harbor Regional Center
- Harvest Home
- Indiana Association for Infant Mental Health
- Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services
- Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health
- Los Angeles County Department of Public Health
- Para los Ninos
- Riverside University Health Center – Behavioral Health Growing Healthy Minds (Riverside County)
- The Help Group
- St Anne’s Family Services
- Wellnest
- WestEd
- ZERO TO THREE
Expected benefits include:
- Increased competency of the mental health workforce; and
- Increased access to mental health services for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers and their families.
- Mental health professionals with expertise in this area can be endorsed by the California Center for Infant-Family and Early Childhood Mental Health. The trainings offered in this Core Training Initiative help prepare professionals for endorsement.
- Participating in regular Reflective Practice Facilitation is key to success as an infant-family mental health practitioner. This project provides advanced Reflective Practice Facilitation to supervisors from over 25 mental health agencies.