There has been an urgent need to ensure that all children in all of our communities receive the help they need in order to grow, learn, and thrive. The 9th Annual ECMH Conference, in addition to providing research and clinical updates about brain development, childhood trauma and the effects of family violence, breakout workshops highlighted critical and pressing issues related to ethnically diverse families with young children. Workshops featured clinicians who are providing innovative interventions, programs, and evolving practices based on current research that are responsive to the cultural understandings of families. Attendees explored standards and interventions that support teachers, mental health practitioners, caregivers, and other professionals working in the field of early childhood to enhance quality of care, collaborative relationships and social/emotional activities to support healthy and safe relationships during early childhood.
Saturday’s program focused on topics related to the skills, knowledge, collaboration and cooperation needed between behavioral health providers and early childhood educators. Early childhood educators spend a large amount of time with children and are in a unique position to notice distinct needs and intervene early. Specific areas covered included preschool suspension/expulsion, managing challenging behavior in the classroom, recognizing signs of child abuse and neglect and/or other traumas, creating positive discipline, supporting social-emotional competence, engaging parents and creative skills to build teamwork between educators and behavioral health providers.
Conference Learning Objectives:
- Examine evidence based and evidence-informed, cooperative strategies for how parents, family members, teachers, clinicians and health-care providers can positively support a child’s developmental experience
- Identify implications for partnerships between healthcare, education, behavioral health, probation and child welfare professionals to address children in need of services from diverse cultural/experiential backgrounds
- Recognize the struggle and decisions that families go through to seek services, the needs that clients have, and the current best practices that engage children and families in culturally informed, clinically effective services
- Identify key components of assessment and intervention that are family-focused, culturally-sensitive, and strengths-based specific to region, population, group or culture of origin
- Coordinate school support and behavioral health care for children who are not making academic or social/emotional progress at school as a result of trauma, toxic stress and/or development challenges
Click here to view agenda and speakers.
Click here to view the faculty list
Click here to view the list of planning partners.
