Did you know Infant Mental Health is EVERYONE’S Business?

Celebrate Babies Week is here! Join us, along with the NJ Association for Infant Mental Health (NJ-AIMH) and the Montclair State University Center for Autism and Early Childhood Mental Health (CAECMH), as well as the Alliance for the Advancement of Infant Mental Health, and other Infant Mental Health (IMH) associations from across the globe as we celebrate babies, their families, and all those who support them! 

Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health (IECMH), sometimes referred to as “early relational health,” refers to how well a child develops socially and emotionally within the context of their relationships. Between the ages of birth to three, babies are learning to form secure, trusting, and caring relationships with the adults around them. Children with positive and engaging interactions in their earliest years are more likely to enjoy good physical and mental health over their lifetimes, while negative experiences during that timeframe can adversely impact brain development, with serious lifelong consequences. Everyone - from parents, to service providers, to policymakers - plays a role in ensuring babies have healthy early relationships and experiences that promote healthy development across a child’s lifetime. 

Celebrate Babies Week is the perfect time to reflect on the collective progress made in New Jersey to increase the availability of infant mental health services and to build a well-trained workforce in the arena.  As a result of an increased understanding among our state leaders and policymakers over the past few years regarding the unique mental health needs of infants and toddlers, and the recognition that more has to be done to address the current mental health crisis, we are thrilled to celebrate the following wins for babies:

• • • Since 2021, over 170 mental health professionals working with young children, including mobile response and intensive in-community clinicians, have received intensive training on infant mental health through a partnership with the Department of Children and Families, Children’s System of Care and Montclair State CAECMH.
    • As of December 2023, a total of 98 infant and early childhood mental health professionals have been endorsed by the NJ-AIMH. Since 2020, 20 additional infant and early childhood mental health clinicians have been endorsed. NJ-AIMH is the sole provider of the NJ-AIMH Competencies and Endorsement® system in New Jersey. Grounded in the best practices developed by the Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health (MI-AIMH), the NJ-AIMH Endorsement represents nearly a decade of efforts to bring to the state a highly-regarded professional credential to Infant Mental Health multidisciplinary professionals in the field. Endorsement has been in effect in NJ since 2014.
    • Thanks to a partnership between New Jersey Department of Human Services (NJ DOH), Division of Family Development and Montclair State CAECMH, the number of infant mental health consultants in NJ has tripled in the past five years, now serving approximately 160 child care programs throughout the state per year. Infant mental health consultation is a prevention-based approach to facilitating children’s healthy social and emotional development. Specially trained infant and early childhood mental health consultants are paired with early childhood educators to build caregivers’ capacities and skills to facilitate young children’s social and emotional development before more intensive behavioral interventions are needed.
    • In January of 2024, the Governor signed into law (PL 2023, c213) legislation requiring Medicaid to reimburse Clinical Social Workers, Professional Counselors, and Marriage and Family Therapists for behavioral health services. This will greatly expand access to mental health services for families enrolled in NJ FamilyCare, including babies!
    • Funding has been included in the past two budgets to establish a program through the NJ DOH's Division of Medical Assistance and Health Services, NJ FamilyCare/Medicaid that provides an enhanced payment for well-child and sick visit claims submitted for children under 4 years of age at HealthySteps sites. HealthySteps is an evidence‐based program that serves young children from birth to age 3 and their families in a pediatric healthcare settings. Child development professionals, known as HealthySteps Specialists, are housed in the doctor's office as part of the healthcare team. They serve as liaisons between the child and family and the healthcare team and offer a range of services including mental health screenings, support services and connections to mental health services, as needed. This removes the burden from parents to navigate an often complicated mental and behavioral health system.
    • The NJ DOH's New Jersey Early Intervention Services (NJEIS) has embraced early relational health as a central focus of their work. Early intervention services are designed to address a problem or delay in development as early as possible in children aged birth to three years. The NJEIS has partnered with Montclair State University and the NJ-AIMH to provide early relational health training and reflective supervision to their workforce.
    • Three New Jersey clinics, Montclair State CAECMH, Children’s Home Society, and Care Plus, were awarded highly competitive infant and early childhood mental health grants from the US Health and Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The purpose of this program is to improve outcomes for children, from birth up to 12 years of age, by developing, maintaining, or enhancing infant and early childhood mental health promotion, intervention, and treatment services.

As the above interdepartmental/interdisciplinary wins indicate, infant mental health is everyone’s business! To learn more about how to make the relational health of infants, young children, and families your business, please visit:

NJ-AIMH  |  Montclair State CAECMH  |  Alliance AIMH  |  ACNJ