Right Start for Colorado is an Infant/Early Childhood Mental Health initiative partially funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
Right Start for Colorado is a new initiative that aims to expand infant and early childhood mental health services across Colorado communities by building statewide workforce capacity for professionals serving young children birth to 5 years of age. Right Start for Colorado will provide no cost/ low cost trainings to clinicians and allied providers across the state on numerous infant/early childhood mental health principles and practices, including relationship-based, developmentally specific evidence-based treatments.
Take Our Needs Assessment
We’re partnering with the Colorado Health Institute to conduct a needs assessment to help us understand current Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health workforce capacity across the state and identify interest in workforce trainings. Please participate in the survey that best describes you.
This survey is for Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health clinicians (specialists, consultants, therapists, psychiatrists, psychologists) to report on services they provide to clients.
This survey is for managers, directors, and/or executive leadership to provide information about all Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health services provided at the organization.
We appreciate your participation in this survey as it is critical for helping our team understand where we can best serve Coloradans with these training opportunities. We want to ensure our organizations and clinicians have the tools and trainings they need to treat young children and families.
The survey will take approximately 25 minutes to complete, and the information we are collecting will be kept confidential and only be used to inform Right Start for Colorado training opportunities. Please note we will be asking you to provide a name and contact information so that we may follow up to discuss next steps and opportunities, and include you in a drawing for a gift card.
If you are a professional who serves young children birth to five years of age but do not specialize in infant and early childhood mental health clinical services (such as pediatricians, early childhood education professionals or nurse home visitors), please do not complete either of the surveys above. We will reach out to you later this fall for your valuable insights. Please contact Jalyn Ingalls at Colorado Health Institute if you have any questions.
What is Right Start for Colorado's Vision?
Right Start for Colorado's goal is to create alignment among all different sectors and organizations working on behalf of infants and young children and provide some game-changing work that advances the infant mental health landscape in Colorado."
-Dr. Shannon Bekman, Director of Right Start for Colorado
The two long-term outcomes Right Start for Colorado aims to move the needle on with this 5-year grant are:
- To have a strong and skilled statewide community of mental health professionals with expertise in infants and young children that can meet the social-emotional needs of young children (ages 0-5) and families across Colorado.
- To have a robust allied provider network that understands infant/early childhood mental health and feels competent and supported in identifying and referring very young children for appropriate assessment and intervention.
Who is Right Start for Colorado's Statewide Infant/Early Childhood Mental Health Workforce?
Very young children interact with many different systems and sectors. The infant/early childhood mental health workforce is inclusive of far more than mental health clinicians. It includes all professionals who frequently work with the birth to 5 population. Our aim is to support these professionals in their knowledge and skills to be “infant mental health informed.”
What Trainings will Right Start for Colorado Offer?
Right Start for Colorado will provide a mix of trainings suitable for various audiences. Some trainings will be focused more towards clinicians who provide treatment services to the 0-5 population, and others will be geared towards providers wanting a better understanding of what infant mental health is and how it intersects with their professional role.
Trainings will include:
- Evidence-based and promising practices
- Child Parent Psychotherapy & Circle of Security
- Clinical Diagnosis of Infants and Young Children (DC:0-5™)
- Reflective Supervision/Consultation
- Diversity-Informed Infant Mental Health Tenets
- Colorado Foundations of Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health for Early Childhood Professionals and Partners
- Other topics identified in our Needs Assessment (coming Summer 2019)
All of our trainings will align with the competencies for Infant Mental Health Endorsement®
We Want Your Input
Right Start for Colorado is conducting a statewide needs assessment to inform our workforce development training plan. We want to understand what trainings will be most helpful and where in the state trainings will be most useful. What do you need to better serve the birth to 5 population?
Participate in our upcoming needs assessment, and let us know what type of training you'd like to see. Please be on the lookout for this needs assessment coming in Summer 2019.
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Contact
Right Start for Colorado
Phone: 303.300.6263
Email: Theresa.Diggs@mhcd.org
Dahlia Campus for Health & Well-Being