Infant/Toddler Early Childhood Mental Health Consultant

Role: The Infant Toddler Early Childhood Mental Health Consultant (ITECMH Consultant) will promote healthy growth in young children's social and emotional development by building the skills, knowledge and responsiveness of early care and education staff and connecting children and their families to needed services. The ITECMH Consultant will work in partnership with the Infant Toddler Specialists in the Infant Toddler Regional Network to provide programmatic consultation to child care settings serving infants and toddlers. All services will be culturally responsive and respectful of children, families, and early care and education staff. The ITECMH Consultant will also support the evaluation of the project by collecting required data and maintaining records.

Essential Functions:

 Programmatic

• Provide culturally responsive consultation that reflects the philosophy of early childhood mental health consultation best practices
• Observe and assess strengths and challenges within the infant, toddler and early childhood settings as well as teacher/provider practices
• Assist infant, toddler and early childhood education staff in offering a prosocial learning environment by helping to develop and implement plans specific to each setting
• Administer developmental, social and emotional screening tools and help teacher/provider learn to administer whenever possible and appropriate
• Provide training and coaching in classroom management strategies to promote social-emotional development
• Develop and conduct training for staff, families and community members
• Facilitate referrals of children and families to community resources as needed and support parents in advocating for their children and navigating agencies/systems; build the capacity of programs/providers to handle this process
• Share resources on social-emotional development and learning
• Collaborate with owners/administrators on the development of inclusive policies for working with all children and families
• Collaborate with owners/administrators to implement effective policies and practices for self ­ care strategies for staff
• Participate in all Infant Toddler Regional Network (ITRN) and ITECMH meetings and conference calls
• Participate in on-going professional development associated with this project and required by the Council
• Provide reports on activities and results on quarterly basis to the Council and as requested by ECLC and/or OCFS
• Participate in outreach events

Technology and Data

• Participate in weekly data and evaluation support calls with outside partner to ensure consistent and accurate use of data collection
• Analyze data for quality improvement
• Maintain certification for all assessment tools
• Maintain confidentiality of all client protected health information and adhere to all HIPAA related policies and procedures

Minimum Qualifications

• Master's Degree in Psychology, Social Work, Counseling or other related counseling/mental health degree. Licensed or Licensed-eligible preferred.
• Three to.five years of experience working with children and/or families, and/or early childhood
• settings
• Working knowledge of infant and early childhood typical and atypical development, early childhood mental health, adverse childhood experiences, family systems
• Demonstrated experience with or attention to equity, inclusion and cultural humility
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Demonstrated ability to engage with diverse audiences, specifically racially, ethnically and socio-economically diverse communities
• Ability to work independently within a flexible schedule and practice effective time management
• A valid driver's license and proof of insurance
• Capacity to work collaboratively with a team of various professionals

Preferred Qualifications

• Dual advanced degree in mental health and early childhood education
• Demonstrated experience in an early childhood program, early intervention or early childhood mental health program
• Working knowledge of evidence-based curricula to promote early childhood mental health, (0-5 formal and informal social-emotional assessment tools)
• New York State Association for Infant Mental Health (NYS-AIMH) Infant Mental Health Endorsed or related competencies or experience

Reports to

• Director of Professional Development
• Weekly 1:1 is required
• Monthly team meeting required