Impacting PA’s Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Workforce
The Pennsylvania Association for Infant Mental Health (PA-AIMH), with support from the Pennsylvania Project LAUNCH Partnership, will be implementing the Competency Guidelines for Endorsement in Culturally Sensitive, Relationship-Focused Practice Promoting Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health®, developed by the Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health (MI-AIMH). The implementation process will be a collaborative effort between PA Project LAUNCH and PA-AIMH and will be “launched" in early 2018. Pennsylvania has joined 27 US states and 1 international territory in the movement toward the promotion of infant mental health principles and practices, influenced in PA greatly by the recommendations of the Early Childhood Mental Health Advisory Committee (2009) who indicated PA should “adopt and promote a set of early childhood mental health competencies for all professionals and across all levels of service provision for families with children from conception through age five.”
An endorsement in infant/early mental health (I/ECMH) is a verifiable process that supports the development and acknowledgement of infant and early childhood professionals, within a framework that recognizes knowledge, training, and criteria for best practice standards. It is not a license or certification, but instead is an overlay onto a person’s professional credentials which recognizes achievement of competence in the area of I/ECMH.
PA-AIMH, in collaboration with PA Project LAUNCH, is excited to have taken this first step to ensure that professionals working with very young children and their families are knowledgeable and skilled in promoting social-emotional development and addressing mental health concerns. More information related to the competencies and endorsement system will be forthcoming as implementation moves forward.
An endorsement in infant/early mental health (I/ECMH) is a verifiable process that supports the development and acknowledgement of infant and early childhood professionals, within a framework that recognizes knowledge, training, and criteria for best practice standards. It is not a license or certification, but instead is an overlay onto a person’s professional credentials which recognizes achievement of competence in the area of I/ECMH.
PA-AIMH, in collaboration with PA Project LAUNCH, is excited to have taken this first step to ensure that professionals working with very young children and their families are knowledgeable and skilled in promoting social-emotional development and addressing mental health concerns. More information related to the competencies and endorsement system will be forthcoming as implementation moves forward.
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IECMH Endorsement® Updates:
PA-AIMH has identified a core group of professionals who are in the process to become endorsed through the Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health (MI-AIMH) which should be completed by March 2018. Six members of this cohort are seeking Infant Mental Health Endorsement®. Additionally, PA-AIMH is one of four states who are implementing the new Early Childhood Mental Health Endorsement® through the Alliance for the Advancement of Infant Mental Health and MI-AIMH. There are two phases to this implementation with the first phase focused on Early Childhood Family Associate and Early Childhood Family Specialist. Two members of our implementation cohort are seeking Early Childhood Mental Health Endorsement® under this phase. Phase Two should begin in late 2018. We anticipate that we will begin to accept applications for IMH Endorsement Categories and Phase One of ECMH Endorsement Categories in the summer of 2018! We now have an updated version of the Competency Guidelines® that includes both the IMH and ECMH Endorsement® quantitative and qualitative requirements. Please email us at pa-aimh@pa-aimh.org to request your copy! PA-AIMH has been fortunate enough to collaborate with two state departments related to our Endorsement for Culturally Sensitive, Relationship-focused Practice Promoting Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health, as noted below:
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