CT-AIMH Summer Newsletter
2018
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Recognizing and celebrating the emotional, cognitive and relational capacities and capabilities of infants is just the beginning of translating science to practice in Infant/Early Childhood Mental Health....
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Save the Date for our Annual Fall Conference
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Please, join us for our annual Fall Conference on
Thursday, Nov. 15, 2018
at Woodwinds in Branford, Connecticut! Save the Date to hear the keynote speaker:
Eva Marie Shivers, JD, PhD, the Founder and Executive Director of the Indigo Cultural Center in Phoenix, AZ
Registration will open soon!
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NEW CT-AIMH WEBSITE LAUNCHED!
New CT-AIMH website will offer:
- Ease of use
- Infant Mental Health is defined with accompanying materials and resources
- A new membership login page to sign-in as a new member, renew membership and if you are endorsed, to renew your Endorsement®
- Links to register for CT-AIMH trainings and/or conferences
- A list of audience-specific IMH training series that are offered by CT-AIMH
- A link to the Alliance to the Advancement of IMH
- Information about Infant Mental Health Endorsement® (IMH-E®) and
- A list of committees that you can join
- A donation button for those interested in supporting our work by adding CT-AIMH to your charitable donation list (we are a non-profit 501(c)(3))
*New CT-AIMH website was made possible thanks to the contributions from the Connecticut Children's Fund and the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, Early Childhood Investments
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Saying Goodbye is Never Easy
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As Miri Keren, M.D. expresses in
Perspectives in Infant Mental Health, "Teachers and mentors may be viewed like parents, and for many of us, the relationship with each was, in a way, parallel to an attachment relationship with an early caregiver". In this way, we may feel overwhelmed, sad, lost or disorganized when separated from these attachment figures. Over the past few years, we've had to say "Goodbye" to several mentors and teachers to us in infant mental health practice; Daniel Stern, M.D., Peter De Chateau, M.D., Kathryn Barnard, Ph.D., R.N., FAAN, and most recently T. Berry Brazelton, M.D. It is not easy to say "Goodbye" to those we admire, adore and attribute so much of our infant mental health practice to their teaching, modeling and guidance. In this separation from our mentors and teachers, the reunion is in our memories and in our ability to practice what we learned from them. Let's not say "Goodbye", let's say "Thank You!".
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Have you heard about the
Diversity-Informed Tenets for Work with Infants, Children and Families
? The Irving Harris Foundation has given us a framework to drive our approach to cultural competency in infant/early childhood mental health practice.
For more information, please go to:
1. Self-Awareness Leads to Better Services for Families
2. Champion Children’s Rights Globally
3. Work to Acknowledge Privilege and Combat Discrimination
4. Recognize and Respect Non-Dominant Bodies of Knowledge
5. Honor Diverse Family Structures
6. Understand That Language Can Hurt or Heal
7. Support Families in Their Preferred Language
8. Allocate Resources to Systems Change
9. Make Space and Open Pathways
10. Advance Policy That Supports All Families
©2018 by Irving Harris Foundation.
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Board members Carlita Elias and Melissa Mendez share a moment together
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CT-AIMH Celebrates...
new satellite office space in
Noank, Connecticut!
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In the quaint seaside community of Noank, CT
Heidi Maderia, Executive Director of CT-AIMH, introduced the new satellite office space where she hosted the organization's June Board of Directors Retreat.
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We all know that
play is an essential aspect of promoting infant and early childhood development. Board members
Margaret Holmberg and Carlita Elias demonstrate that playfulness is also key component to effective collaboration!
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Board members Marianne Barton and Elaine Flynn-York enjoy the first of the warm weather this summer.
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Board members
Elaine Flynn-York,
Margaret Holmberg and
Aileen McKenna prepare for the organization's June BOD Retreat and meeting which combines business with socialization
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A beautiful table welcomes guests during our first Open House at
CT-AIMH's satellite office in
Noank, Connecticut
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Always with a smile and excitement for the work, Dr. Jerry Calnen is first to arrive at the annual June BOD Retreat
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CT-AIMH Conducts Trauma Training Needs Assessment to Build Workforce Capacity
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Methodology included two online surveys and a qualitative
semi-structured interview yielding results from over three hundred respondents in the early childhood and trauma training workforce. The CT-AIMH Trauma Training Needs Assessment examined the experiences of providers to enhance understanding of childhood trauma and improve practice outcomes.
The full report, developed by Lorentson Consulting, and
made possible by Connecticut’s Early Childhood Funder Collaborative, a project of the Connecticut Council for Philanthropy is available here:
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IT’S TIME FOR EARNED FAMILY LEAVE
Gerald Calnen, MD, IMH-E
®
All of us who work with young children and their families on a daily basis take it as an article of faith that healthy development depends upon a nurturing relationship between the child and a caring adult.
We commit ourselves to helping families to deal with threats to that relationship and to identify opportunities for its enhancement and enrichment. But in the process, what we sometimes overlook is the very precondition that makes a nurturing relationship even possible, and that is the element of time: parents and babies need time to be together. This is especially true during the first few months of life, when the brain is growing and developing so incredibly rapidly, making the health of the baby profoundly dependent on a secure relationship with a caring adult. We are reminded of Winnicott’s dictum:
"There is no such thing as a baby; there is a baby and
someone
."
But the sad reality is that in Connecticut we don’t have a statewide paid leave policy. We have FMLA, which provides for unpaid leave, but most workers don’t even avail themselves of it, primarily because they can’t afford to do so. According to the Connecticut Campaign for Paid family Leave, only 15% of workers in Connecticut have any kind of paid leave, however modest, and only 5% of low income workers have it; and it’s these workers, whose financial and social resources are so meager, who are in greatest need of paid leave.
To get off to a good start in life, babies need to be with a parent or some other caring adult during the first few months of life. The United States is the only nation in the world that doesn’t have a national paid leave policy; the other is Papua New Guinea. We can do better.
There are now five other states that provide paid leave for working families. Connecticut should become the sixth.
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Soon! CHDI Issue Brief Describes Expansion of Infant Mental Health Endorsement
®
(0-3 years) to now include
Early Childhood Mental Health Endorsement
® (3-6 years)
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CT-AIMH continues to pilot the Early Childhood Mental Health Endorsement® process for providers who are applying infant and early childhood principles in their work with children ages 3-6 and their families. We will complete the pilot in early 2019, and begin to offer this new Early Childhood Mental Health Endorsement®
in mid 2019.
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CT-AIMH is very proud to have consulted and supported the development of CCSU's new Early Childhood Studies and Infant/Toddler Mental Health Bachelor's Degree Program!
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The Infant Mental Health Message is spreading!
We are not alone in the world thinking about the importance of early relationships...
UNICEF Belize asks,
"What’s the most important thing a child has?
It’s her brain. And yet, we’re not caring for children’s brains the way we care for their bodies."
They developed this 30 second video to highlight the link between brain development and loving relationships.
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The mission of CT-AIMH is to promote, support, and strengthen nurturing, quality relationships for infants, young children and their caregivers, within the context of family, community, and culture.
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