March 2022 – January 2024
The Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) allocated funds from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to the University of Wisconsin Parent-Infant/Early Childhood Mental Health Program in the Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine and Public Health to pilot Trauma Informed and Culturally Sensitive Infant/Early Childhood Mental Health (IECMH) Consultation in Wisconsin Birth to 3 Programs.
IECMH Consultation is an evidence-based and relational approach for increasing providers’ and parents’ capacity to support the social and emotional development and wellbeing of children in their care. It is both a preventative and early intervention service. Documented outcomes of IECMH Consultation include improving young children’s social and emotional functioning, decreasing children’s challenging behaviors, strengthening parent-child relationships, increasing provider self-efficacy and confidence promoting mental health and social-emotional development, increasing provider-family collaboration, increasing program quality and reducing staff turnover (Silver et al., 2023; SAMHSA, 2014).
Project Overview: A two-part project was implemented in which one arm piloted an Integrated Model of IECMH Consultation in five Birth to 3 Programs and another arm provided all Wisconsin Birth to 3 Programs with the opportunity to receive child/family centered mental health consultation in response to specific cases referred. The Integrated IECMH Consultation Arm concurrently focused on developing the IECMH Consultation workforce.
| Integrated IECMH Consultation Arm: | Statewide Referral Arm: |
|---|---|
| Milwaukee, Dane, Washington, Waupaca and Grant/Iowa Counties piloted IECMH Consultation integrated into local Birth to 3 programs. The IECMH Consultant at each site met routinely with Birth to 3 program leadership and providers and was available to provide a) reflective space, b) programmatic consultation, c) group consultation in team meetings and d) specific child/family centered mental health consultation with children with complex social and emotional needs. This integrated model of IECMH Consultation facilitated the development of relationships and access for consultation across these multiple levels.Consultants in this arm of the project were Mental Health Clinicians newer to providing IECMH Consultation and were provided with in-depth training and paired with highly experienced Mentors who provided direct observation, opportunities to shadow/partner and routine reflective mentoring.
Duration of 14 months, including IECMH Consultation Training. |
Birth to 3 Programs statewide were able to make referrals for child/family centered mental health consultation through a centralized intake process.This arm of the project supported Birth to 3 Providers in their work with a specific child/family. Referrals included children with complex social and emotional needs, including but not limited to children enrolled through the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) and children otherwise involved in child welfare.
Consultants in this arm of the project were generally highly experienced IECMH Consultants at the level of expertise to mentor other consultants. Duration of 14 months. |
See the results below
