BHIPP Bulletin

Volume 11, Issue 6

December 2025

This month's BHIPP Bulletin is a contribution from Grace McIlmoyle, MPH BHIPP Outreach & Training Coordinator.

For this month’s newsletter, BHIPP has gathered information and resources about early childhood mental health interventions that involve providing parents with the knowledge and skills to strengthen their relationship with their children, promote desired behaviors in their children, and effectively respond to their children’s behavior problems. Generally speaking, there are two types of parent-focused early childhood mental health interventions: attachment-focused interventions and behavioral parent training interventions.  

Attachment-focused interventions aim to foster secure parent-child bonds by enhancing parents' sensitivity and responsiveness to their children.¹ Examples of attachment-focused interventions with a strong evidence base include Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-Up and Child-Parent Psychotherapy.  

Child-Parent Psychotherapy is a dyadic intervention for children up to age 5 who have been exposed to traumatic events.² Families engage in weekly sessions with a therapist in the home or clinic. The goal is to enhance emotional communication between the parent and child by helping the parent explore connections between their own trauma history and their current feelings and reactions to their child, and coaching the parent in responding to their child’s expression of distress. For more information about Child-Parent Psychotherapy, visit: https://childparentpsychotherapy.com/

Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-Up is a 10-session intervention for parents of children aged 6 months to 4 years old traditionally delivered via home visiting.³ The intervention uses in the moment coaching by a therapist to teach parents to provide nurturing care when their child is distressed, follow their child’s lead, and decrease intrusive and frightening parent behaviors. For more information about Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-Up, visit: https://www.abcparenting.org/ 

Behavioral parent training is the gold standard for first-line treatment for disruptive behavior problems in young children and can also be delivered as a preventive intervention to promote young children's social-emotional and behavioral well-being.^4,5 There are many evidence-based behavioral parent training programs that are recommended for different age ranges or use different formats and teaching approaches.⁶ These programs typically include the following elements: strategic use of adult attention, strategies for attending to and following the child’s lead in one-on-one interactions to strengthen the parent-child attachment relationship, positive reinforcement strategies (e.g., labeled praise) to promote desired behaviors, effective limit setting strategies to reduce misbehaviors, and weekly practice activities to encourage application of the strategies.^7,8,9 Examples of evidence-based behavioral parent training programs include: Parent-Child Interaction Therapy and the Chicago Parent Program. 

Parent Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) is a 10-14 session intervention for children, ages 2-5 years old experiencing behavior problems and their parents. PCIT involves a therapist providing live coaching to a caregiver through a bug in the ear or via telehealth. Parents receive coaching on how to interact with their child in sensitive and responsive ways through following the child’s lead during play, using strategies to promote warmth, attention, and cooperation, and to give clear instructions, set limits, and follow through on those limits with effective consequences. For more information about PCIT, visit: https://www.pcit.org/

The Chicago Parent Program is an intervention for parents of children ages 2 to 8, designed to address the needs of parents raising young children in underserved communities.¹⁰ This intervention can be delivered as a 12-session group-based intervention, an 8-12 session intervention delivered by a clinician to individual families or as a web-based self-administered intervention.¹¹ The intervention uses brief videos of real families managing behavior at home and in public, discussion and problem-solving, and weekly practice activities to help parents learn and apply the parenting strategies with their children.¹¹ For more information about Chicago Parent Program, visit: https://www.chicagoparentprogram.org/program    

Resources about how to find a provider trained in these models or to receive training in an early childhood mental health intervention model: 

1. https://childtrauma.ucsf.edu/cpp-provider-roster 

2. https://www.abcparenting.org/findaparentcoach/ 

3. https://www.pcit.org/become-a-pcit-provider 

4. https://www.pcit.org/for-schools 

5. https://www.chicagoparentprogram.org/training 

As always, if you have questions about the behavioral health needs of your patients, we encourage you to call the BHIPP consultation line at 

855-MD-BHIPP (632-4477), open 9am-5pm Monday-Friday, for resource/referral networking or consultation support.

We will keep you informed about all our services and training events through our website (www.mdbhipp.org) and monthly e-newsletters. Additionally, BHIPP is on LinkedIn and Facebook. We invite you to follow us there to stay up-to-date on upcoming training events, pediatric mental health research, and resources for providers, families and children.

BHIPP Announcements

Sign up for the BHIPP ECHO PMHNP Series!

Register for the new BHIPP PMHNP ECHO series! The next session will be held on January 6th from 11:00am-12:00pm. Join our multidisciplinary team of child behavioral health experts every month between October 2025 and May 2026 for virtual case-based learning and didactic presentations. This series is designed for Maryland Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioners (PMHNPs) who want to deepen their knowledge of child and adolescent mental health.

Join the BHIPP ECHO Series for Pediatric Primary Care Providers!

Register for the BHIPP ECHO Series for Pediatric Primary Care Providers! The next session will be held on January 8th from 12:00-1:00pm. Join our multidisciplinary team of child behavioral health experts bimonthly from October 2025 and May 2026 for virtual case-based learning and didactic presentations. Free CEU, CME, and ABP MOC Part 2 credits are available for participation.

Register for an upcoming BHIPP Webinar!

Register for an upcoming BHIPP Webinar on January 28th at 12:00pm! BHIPP Webinars are a series of interactive, web-based learning sessions that are a virtual space for pediatric primary care, emergency medicine, and behavioral health providers to connect, learn and share about strategies, practices and resources to promote mental health and resilience among children and families as well as providers. Free CME and CEU credit is available for participation!

BHIPP is hiring a Health Program Manager!

Are you looking for a job with a mission to support children's behavioral health? Join the BHIPP team! We are hiring a Health Program Manager that will:

• Help to lead the expansion of a statewide colocation internship in pediatric primary care
• Shape training, supervise interns, and positively impact children and families across Maryland
• Grow as a clinical leader with opportunities for supervision certification, professional development, collaboration with researchers, and leading innovative behavioral health programs
• Be part of a mission-driven team dedicated to expanding access to child and adolescent mental health care
• Enjoy a competitive salary and exceptional UMB benefits including 4+ weeks of vacation, 16 paid holidays, tuition remission for you and your dependents.

Click the button below for more information and to apply!