Erika Larson: Infants and toddlers need mental health support too

By Erika Larson

Every parent and caregiver of a young child has been there for some big toddler emotions and behaviors that challenge even the most patient of us. But some kids show more frequent or persistent behaviors signaling that mental health needs to be more directly addressed. We rely on early learning educators to help guide them through it, and Washington has a statewide program to support the child care providers teaching our children emotional skills.

The Holding Hope Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation program provides free mental health consultation to licensed child care providers in Washington. As one of those mental health consultants, I work with local child care programs and teachers, building their mental health resources, alleviating the pressures of managing mental health in kids and leaving providers in our community with new skills and capabilities in their toolbox for the future. I also work with families of young children to support them in understanding their child’s behavior and needs and making referrals to other community services.

Unfortunately, right now there are only 15 Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultants available through Holding Hope statewide, which means one consultant to every 12,000 children in child care. The current team of consultants can only work with 2% of licensed child care providers at a time, and there is a long waitlist for this program that’s only growing.

Supporting child care providers is an important part of solving the child care crisis in Washington state. Early childhood education is a rewarding but challenging career and working with children with social/emotional and mental health needs adds to an already high-pressure job. Low pay, few benefits and a stressful work environment are all driving experienced educators to leave the workforce, in turn making it even harder for parents to find quality child care. But through providing direct skill building and support for child care providers, we can empower them and provide knowledge that can help some stay in the field. And we need more providers to stay in child care – the fewer kids who can find care, the fewer parents who can go to work.

Washington state has built a strong foundation to solve the crisis but needs to keep taking big steps forward now. As one piece to strengthen the child care system and support the workforce, the state legislature should take up the investments in Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consulting, currently in the House’s proposed budget. There’s currently a long waitlist of 100 child care providers for this support from providers across the state, and additional funding could add enough consultants to make sure that those waiting for support can get it. It will also allow for more Mental Health Consultants providing linguistically and culturally appropriate services. Currently, nine of our 15 consultants represent communities of color with fluency in five languages.

This one role can impact everyone in the child’s life. Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultants not only help a child coping with big emotions or behaviors but support the provider in the moment with skills they can use throughout their careers, help parents to understand their child’s mental health and behavior, and support all the children in the classroom who are interacting with each other.

We want our kids to head into school and life on an equal playing field, with each child building social-emotional skills to thrive. Access to high-quality early learning supports not only educational learning but emotional growth and mental health in infants and young kids – a positive for all of us down the road. Mental health consultation is a research-proven strategy to improve childhood development, and it is an investment in the high-quality early learning providers who are essential for working parents in our state.

Erika Larson, LICSW, of Spokane, is an early learning mental health consultant at Community-Minded Enterprises and through Holding Hope of Child Care Aware of Eastern Washington.