Early Care and Education Mental Health Consultant

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Consultation (60%):

• Promote physical and cultural environments that encourage mental health and positive social and emotional functioning through relationship-oriented, reflective dialogues that enhance caregiver awareness of their own internal world and that of children.
• Visit each assigned classroom and Family Child Care provider at least once a month.
• Provide child development information related to social-emotional development and mental health.
• Provide guidance to staff on selecting, implementing, and interpreting social-emotional screening and assessment tools and findings.
• Improve interpersonal relationships and child outcomes.
• Increase the confidence, competence, and well-being of those consulted.
• Provide guidance and strategies that support our suspensions and expulsion policy and procedure
• Provide guidance and model developmentally appropriate activities for children and effective ways to work with and support young children.
• Meet with assigned classroom (includes FCC homes) teams (at a minimum of 1 time a month) to review classroom observations and develop and implement plans using Conscious Discipline strategies.
• Provide resources to teachers, families, and early education staff following significant incidents affecting the safety or wellbeing of staff and/or children within our early education service settings.
• Provide psychoeducation about child development, trauma, and strategies that support children’s emotional wellbeing to caregivers, including caregivers and educators, in order to support individualized learning and improve teaching & parenting practices.
• Conduct home visits to support the mental health needs of families and children as needed
• Document in the database, paper systems, and child’s file (if needed)

Child Focused Consultation (15%):

• Provide individual child and family focused consultation services as needed, engaging all of the important adults in the life of a child to build capacity to support child’s mental health.
• Conduct observations and assessments of individual children as assigned or referred for consultation.
• If a child exhibits persistent and serious behaviors, support with the pursuit and documentation of reasonable steps to maintain the child’s safe participation in the program.
• Meet with families to consult on child and family needs and to create or follow up on plans to support them.
• Document in the database, paper systems, and child files

Programmatic Consultation (5%)

• Participate in monthly team meetings with the Director of Early Care and Education; (Head of Educational Excellence (HEE) will join periodically.
• Provide input into the development and implementation of the ECE mental health services and procedures.

Screenings, Assessments and Referrals (5%)

• In collaboration with ECE Leads, support, monitoring outcomes, follow-up and referrals of standardized behavioral screening (ASQ:SE).
• Provide child and family services and follow up as needed (document all in the database systems and the child’s file).
• If Allies cannot provide the required services, collaborate with key partner agencies for referrals and parental support to ensure a successful partnership and document the partnership in database systems and the child’s file.

Training (10%)

Staff

• Support, coordinate, and provide staff trainings related to social-emotional and mental health issues at least two times a year, once during pre-service.

Caregivers

• In collaboration with the Family and Community Specialists, provide research-based parent trainings monthly (Caring Conversation Café and/or Nurturing Parent Program).
• In collaboration with ECE Mental Health Director, provide at least one parent training annually

Other (5%)

• Participate in regular supervision (2 times a month) and monthly clinical supervision when required.
• Meet one time a month with center management and Child Development Specialists (CDS) to discuss consultation work.

General

• Travel and provide services in different locations, including home, center, office, community, and virtual settings.
• Maintain a minimum of 18 hours of professional development annually, topics may include, but are not limited to, infant-family and early childhood mental health, implicit bias and equity, trauma-informed practice, early childhood development, and consultation.
• Participate in (as needed) and suggest community members for Allies’ Health and Mental Health Services Advisory Committee.
• Maintain confidentiality of clients and obtain and maintain on file legal releases of information when needed
• Assist with quarterly file reviews of children’s education files and ChildPlus to ensure that mental health screenings, referrals and service delivery are documented in accordance with agency procedures and provide results to supervisor.
• Participate in peer reviews of consultation documentation in Exym and implement timely corrections as needed.
• Staff must believe in and act in accordance with both the agency’s and the program’s mission statements.
• In accordance with our “team” philosophy, the person filling this position may occasionally be required to carry out or assist with other tasks in addition to the duties listed on this job description.
• Occasional evening and weekend hours are required.