A robust body of interdisciplinary research has converged to show that healthy social-emotional development in pregnancy and the first five years sets the foundation for children’s long-term physical and mental health. When problems emerge, it is easier and far more effective to address them when children are young to keep them on track developmentally and to avert longer-term problems. Despite this knowledge, few professionals have access to training on early childhood mental health and development or in providing dyadic relationship-based interventions.
Healthy social- emotional development for infants and toddlers is dependent on the quality and consistency of their relationships with parents and caregivers. To address the mental health needs of infants and young children we need to support the health and mental health of the caregivers and strengthen the parent child dyad through a two-generation focus.
In recognition of this need, in 2016 the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYC DOHMH) funded the Early Childhood Mental Health Network to build the capacity of outpatient clinics located across NYC to address the mental health needs of children birth to 5 years of age, their siblings and their caregivers. A major component of this Network was the funding of a training and technical assistance center to build the capacity and competencies of professionals in family serving systems to identify the social-emotional and mental health needs of young children and their families beginning in the prenatal period.
The New York City Early Childhood Training and Technical Assistance Center (TTAC) is a partnership between the New York Center for Child Development (NYCCD) and the NYU McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research (McSilver). NYCCD has been a major provider of early childhood mental health services in New York, with expertise in informing policy and supporting the field of Early Childhood Mental Health through training and direct practice. McSilver houses the Community and Managed Care Technical Assistance Centers (CTAC & MCTAC), Peer TAC, YTAC (YouthACT Technical Assistance Center), and the Center for Workforce Excellence (CWE). These TA centers offer clinic, business, and system transformation support statewide to all behavioral healthcare providers across NYS.
TTAC integrates NYCCD’s core expertise in perinatal and early childhood mental health with McSilver’s business and technical support and infrastructure to create a dynamic training center that advances clinical practice and incorporates emerging research knowledge. We also focus on business sustainability and disseminating key knowledge to all those who touch the lives of pregnant persons and young children to ensure that they are mental-health informed. TTAC strives to equip practitioners in licensed mental health clinics, early care and education settings, and other child serving systems with the knowledge and tools they need to support the healthy social emotional development of New York’s youngest children.
A key initiative of TTAC is offering training on Evidence Based Treatments to the early childhood outpatient clinics as well as to some of our perinatal partners. TTAC also offers ongoing webinars focused on foundational as well as cutting edge issues around infant and perinatal mental health, all of which are archived and posted along with the webinar recordings on the TTAC website. Since its inception in 2016, TTAC has trained over 16,000 professionals.
The recently released Maternal Mortality Report cited mental health problems during pregnancy as a significant factor in maternal mortality. Although we have known about the importance of maternal health on infant and early childhood development, recent research has shown that parenting begins before birth as parents’ experiences affect fetal development and behavior. To address the mental health needs of infants and young children we need to support the health and mental health of the caregivers beginning in pregnancy. The network expanded funding in 2023 to address the needs of those working in the perinatal period. As part of this expansion, TTAC has provided training and ongoing supports to the NYC Health Department’s Newborn Home Visiting program and Nurse Family Partnership, and to the Citywide Doula Initiative, Brooklyn Neighborhood Health and Healthy Start.
NYCDD, in partnership with McSilver, is pleased to expand their partnership in NYS with a new initiative, Pathways to Professional Development; Building Foundations in Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health (Pathways), funded through the New York State Office of Mental Health. Pathways offers a core training series of cohesive and sequenced foundational webinars on infant and early childhood mental health practice tailored to the developing professional and experienced individuals alike, working in various disciplines across all child serving systems. Each webinar is offered live and also posted as an available training opportunity via the Learning Management System (LMS).
In addition, Pathways is providing virtual and in-person training on the Diagnostic Classification of Mental Health and Developmental Disorders of Infancy and Early Childhood; DC:0-5. DC:0-5 was developed since existing classification systems such as DSM 5 did not adequately reflect the unique developmental and relational experiences of infants and young children. DC:0-5 is a multi-axial system that considers a child’s clinical disorder only after issues such as the child’s health, development, psychosocial stressors, and culture, as well as the nature of the child’s relationship with important caregivers, have been assessed. This tool enhances the professional’s ability to make precise diagnoses and strategically target mental health treatments and interventions for developmental disorders in the earliest years by identifying and describing disorders not addressed in other classification systems and by pointing the way to effective intervention approaches.
These initiatives have helped to build workforce capacity to equip all those who touch the lives of pregnant persons and families with young children to address the social-emotional and mental health needs at a time of maximum impact to set the stage for better health and mental health outcomes.
Evelyn Blanck, LCSW, is Executive Director of New York Center for Child Development. Meg Baier, LMSW, is Director of Healthcare Innovation, and Andrew Cleek, PsyD, is Deputy Executive Director of NYU McSilver Institute. To learn more about TTAC, please visit TTACNY.org. To learn more about Pathways please visit www.ctacny.org/special-initiatives/pathways-to-professional-development/ For questions, please contact ttac.info@nyu.edu.
