December 19, 2024 RSP Newsletter
To the Regional Service Providers (and those working to decide which organization in their region will be the RSPs)
As we close out 2024, we first want to emphasize how grateful we are to collaborate with all of you in this work. It has warmed our hearts to witness such dedicated and thoughtful leadership throughout Oregon. We are looking forward to providing more supports, training, and resources in 2025!
As part of our ongoing work as the Central Entity for the Every Child Belongs initiative in Oregon (Formerly Early Childhood Suspension Expulsion Prevention Program), we are striving to continually provide resources to meet your identified needs as you get ready to start providing Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation services in your area. Therefore, this last issue of 2024 aims to provide more clarification about implementation plans, definitions of IECMH Consultation, and what you can expect from ORIMHA as we get closer to implementing IECMH Consultation.
Important Information and Updates
Implementation Plan
Regional service providers are in all different phases of their planning for hiring and delivering IECMH Consultation services. It is exciting to see all the great work that has been informed by community listening as your organizations get ready to hire!
If you are a group who is working on your implementation plan, this is a reminder that filling out the plan is intended to be quite straightforward. Therefore, if you find it taking a lot of time - please reach out to Sondra & Nichole to meet. We have already held 1:1 sessions with quite a few groups and have found it helpful to connect with us to talk through specifics of the plan such as what hiring, equity plans, and your description of IECMH consultation looks like for your region. And it is helpful to us to hear from you about where there might be questions and barriers.
Overall - please let us know how we can help! Our goal is to provide tools and resources that support your work and planning. Thanks for all you do to lead in communities throughout Oregon!!
What Can RSPs Expect from ORIMHA?
As your groups have gotten more into the details of implementation planning, we have heard questions about what RSPs can expect from ORIMHA So here’s a brief summary of what ORIMHA provides now and plans to provide as the implementation progresses:
In January, we will provide more details about support connected to professional development including support for earning Endorsement!
Save the Dates
Jan 9*: Virtual CoP, 9-11am (*Note: Moved from Jan 2 to Jan 9)
Jan 10: Office hours (virtual), 9-10am
Feb 6: Virtual CoP, 9-11am
Mar 6**: Virtual CoP, 9a-2p (**Note: Longer than usual meeting time)
April 3: Virtual CoP, 9-11am
Last week of April: In-person CoP in Bend, details coming soon…
Big Picture
Did you know…
"When teachers screened positive for depression, they were expelling children at twice the rate."
Walter Gilliam, PhD, Buffett Early Childhood Institute
View the full presentation on YouTube
Resources
Equity Issue Brief from the Center of Excellence for IECMH Consultation at Georgetown
Defining Consultation that Promotes Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health (from the Center of Excellence for IECMH Consultation at Georgetown)
On its uniqueness: “It is unique in its focus on supporting young children’s social and emotional health indirectly by strengthening the adult caregivers’ capacity to foster positive IECMH….The consultant’s role is distinct from and complementary to a continuum of early childhood supports and services, such as child care quality coaches, nurse consultants, or Pyramid Model coaches.”
On collaboration: "Consultants convey the necessity of co-constructing meaning and developing hypotheses together with [the] consultee. A full understanding of a child, family, or situation is only possible with input from the consultee. The consultant's advice is useless if it does not consider the consultee's perspective and understanding of the situation and, ultimately, their willingness to participate in bringing about change."
On promoting reflective capacity: "Wondering instead of knowing....By creating space for curiosity, the consultant instills the idea that 'not knowing' is not incompetence, but a position that precedes understanding. Through thinking together, the consultant permits the consultee the experience of participating in the solution, promoting confidence in their ability to effect change. In this manner the consultant is using inquiry as an intervention aimed at supporting and increasing reflective capacity."
Your IECMH Consultation Implementation Support Team,
Nichole Paradis nichole@or-imha.org
Sondra Stegenga sondra.stegenga@utah.edu
Erin Kinavey Wennerstrom erin@or-imha.org