Infant and early childhood mental health consultation (IECMHC) is an intervention that teams a mental health professional with early care and education staff and families. This team works on ways to help promote the social and emotional development of the young children in their care. Explore these resources to learn how to support programs as they select consultants and enhance their IECMHC services.
Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation (IECMHC) Toolbox
This resource offers free interactive planning tools, guides, and videos. Discover information to support IECMHC efforts in your state, tribe, or community.
How Mental Health Consultants Support Child Care Programs
Infant and early childhood mental health consultants work with the adults in a child's life to support social and emotional development. Learn how a child care program can benefit from working with a mental health consultant.
Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation: Information for Families
This tip sheet for families explores how mental health consultants help adults build strong relationships with children. Consultants can help families address concerns about children's social and emotional development.
Tips for Offering Effective Mental Health Consultation in Ever-Changing Contexts
Explore these tips for developing and sustaining effective infant and early childhood mental health consultation.
Mental Health Consultants: Addressing Trauma and Recovery
Watch this webinar to explore the ways that mental health consultants work with families and staff to promote the positive social and emotional development of infants and children.
Center of Excellence for Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation
The Center of Excellence advances the field of infant and early childhood mental health consultation through training, technical assistance, and resource development.
Center for Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation
The Center offers a wide range of materials that can help Head Start staff support families with practical guidance on effective ways to implement IECMHC. There are also resources to help promote young children’s social and emotional development and reduce challenging behaviors.
MyPeers Mental Health Consultation Community
This online peer learning community supports Head Start leaders and related personnel (e.g., training and technical assistance staff, mental health consultants, policy makers). Join the group and share resources, network, and find support to enhance mental health consultation services.
Supporting Implementation
Foundations of Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation
Learn important information about the foundations of infant and early childhood mental health consultation in this course available on the Individualized Professional Development (iPD) Portfolio.
Essential Elements of Effective Mental Health Consultation
This webinar describes activities that an IECMH consultant engages in on behalf of children and families. Learn the essential elements of engagement that promote positive relationships to achieve better outcomes.
Center of Excellence for Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation Competencies
These competencies represent a national consensus on the knowledge and array of foundational skills and abilities needed to become a competent IECMH consultant.
Making the Most of Your Mental Health Consultation
This webinar recording highlights components of successful mental health consultation, especially in light of the pandemic.
Making the Most of Your Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation Services
Learn about the role of the mental health consultant in early care and education programs. Also, find resources for effective strategies to help design, develop, or sustain your mental health consultation services and system.
Implementing High-quality Mental Health Consultation
View this webinar to discover best practices for how mental health consultants can provide effective support within Head Start and other early care and education programs.
Family Connections: A Mental Health Consultation Model
Explore Family Connections, a preventive, systemwide mental health consultation and training approach to strengthen the capacity of Head Start and Early Head Start staff. These resources and training modules can be used by staff to engage and support families dealing with parental depression and related adversities and with children in classrooms and in the home.
Facilitating a Referral for Mental Health Services for Children and Their Families Within Early Head Start and Head Start
One of the many responsibilities of Head Start program staff is to make referrals for outside services in partnership with families. Facilitating a referral for mental health services involves helping families understand the value of engaging in these services and matching them with the best available provider to ensure a good fit. This tip sheet can help program staff facilitate an effective referral.
Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation: An Evaluation Tool Kit
This resource offers data to support the importance of investing in early childhood mental health consultation. Programs can use the resources in this toolkit as a guide to help design and implement effective mental health services for families.
Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation: Engaging with Families
Explore how infant and early childhood mental health consultants can use this resource to guide their family engagement work with early childhood professionals and families.
Last Updated: June 1, 2023