PCAP-IMH TRAINING DESCRIPTION
WA-IMH WEBSITE
In 2010, the Washington State Parent Child Assistance Program (PCAP) offered a year-long intensive community-based infant mental health (IMH) training. The grant-supported training1 was designed to increase the number of localearly intervention and mental health professionals capable of delivering relationship-based infant mental health services to families impacted by substance abuse and toother at-risk and underserved families. The training served as a pilot for conducting a community-based IMH training within a set of competency and endorsement guidelines for a multi-disciplinary group of professionals.
The PCAP-IMH training was organized around the Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health (MI-AIMH) Competency Guidelines and used a syllabus adapted from a similar two-year community-based training offered in New Mexicoby the Las Cumbres ECMH Training Institute (Relationship-Based Practice In Rural Settings). Seventeen trainees, all with masters degrees and licenses/credentials in their respective fields, and representing seven local agencies2 participated.Disciplines represented included marriage and family therapy, social work, special education, chemical dependency, mental health, physical and occupational therapy, and speech-language pathology. The training included 18 seminar/case conferences (72 hours), group reflective supervision (50 hours), and arequired year-long infant/toddler observation. Trainees prepared professional portfolios, submitted endorsement applications to MI-AIMH,and took the national MI-AIMH written test. The training teamwas composed of four professionals, two from the University of Washington and two from the community.3Childhaven provided the venue for all lecture and reflective supervision sessions.
Based on their professional portfolios, exam results, and documentation of sufficient supervised relationship-based IMH work,three trainees receivedendorsement as Infant Mental Health Specialists (Level III). Fourteen trainees received endorsement as Infant and Family Specialists (Level II) but as a result of the training all had completed several requirements for Level III endorsement. The trainees have continued meeting monthlyfor ongoing interdisciplinaryprofessional support and development through peer consultation, case presentations, and small group study. One member (Level III)started a bi-monthly IMH consultation/supervision group for staff at her agency; others have sought further individual reflective supervision and IMH training experiences to further their endorsement process. Several members attended the Idaho Association for Infant Mental Health’s 2011 Summer Intensive in Boise. Another member attended the Consortium of US WAIMH Affiliates meeting at the Zero to Three National Training Institute in December, 2011. The groupis working towards organizing year-long community-based reflective supervision experience (group and individual) for those needing such supervision to complete their Level III endorsement requirements.
If you are interested in finding out more about the training, please contact any of the following people: Barbara Cobb (); Sandy Jaecksch (); Kim Kanzler (), orJanet Huggins ().
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1Supplemental funds from a SAMHSA/CSAP grant (H79 SP014008; Principal Investigator, Therese Grant, Ph.D.)
2Agencies represented included Community Psychiatric Clinic; Navos; Childhaven; Encompass; Federal Way Birth to Three; Kindering; and Evergreen Manor.
3Donna Weston, Ph.D. (Clinical Psychologist, Infant Mental Health Mentor-Level IV, University of WashingtonDepartment of Psychiatry, Fetal Alcohol and Drug Unit); Sandy Jaecksch, MA, LMHC (Infant Mental Health Mentor-Level IV;Jaecksch Consulting); Haruko Choosakul, MA, MHP, CMHS (Infant Mental Health Specialist-Level III; Navos); and Janet Huggins, Ph.D. (Clinical Psychologist; University of Washington Department of Psychiatry, Fetal Alcohol and Drug Unit/Washington State Parent-Child Assistance Program).