Why earn the Infant Mental Health Endorsement®?
Over 140,000 babies are born in Pennsylvania every year. It is imperative that our professionals are infant/early childhood mental health informed; using knowledge, skills and reflective experiences to guide our work with infants, toddlers, and families in promoting social-emotional development and addressing mental health concerns. The Endorsement materials provide potential candidates with a process for developing a professional development plan, and suggests a pathway for required and supplementary training and experiences to adequately prepare one for work in the infant and family field. Targeted and ongoing training for the professionals from the multiple disciplines that work with infants and young children and their families is essential to ensure that professionals understand infant and early childhood mental health and are equipped to promote positive practices to support these children, prevent problems when risk is identified, and intervene when necessary.
Who can Apply for Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Endorsement®?
An endorsement in infant mental health (IMH) or early childhood mental health (ECMH) is a verifiable process that a practitioner has attained a level of education as specified, participated in specialized in-service trainings, worked with guidance from mentors or supervisors, and acquired knowledge to promote the delivery of high quality, culturally sensitive, relationship-focused services to infants, very young children, parents, other caregivers and families. Professionals eligible for endorsement range from those who have worked in the infant/early childhood field for at least two years to those who have received a doctorate in their field. Each level of Endorsement has a set of educational, work, training and reflective supervision/consultation requirements. For all levels, specialized work experience with infants, young children and their families is required.
PA-AIMH is an active member of The Alliance for the Advancement of Infant Mental Health™. PA-AIMH has licensed the use of the Competency Guidelines® and Endorsement for Culturally Sensitive, Relationship-Focused Practice Promoting Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health® with the propose of supporting infant and early childhood mental health professionals across the Commonwealth with a professional development framework and IECMH credential. Endorsement was brought to Pennsylvania through the support of the PA Project LAUNCH Partnership 2014-2019.
