Membership and Endorsement® Renewals due January 31, 2021
All NJ-AIMH membership and Endorsement® renewals are due January 31, 2021.
- Payment can be made via PayPal. Please note you do not need a PayPal account to complete this transaction, you can pay as a “guest” via PayPal.
- Alternately, you can mail a check to NJ-AIMH, PO Box 43662, Upper Montclair, NJ 07043.
Once we receive your payment, you will receive a confirmation email with your membership confirmation.
If you are also renewing your Endorsement®, please click below for instructions for renewing via the Endorsement Application System (EASy).
Our Babies Can’t Wait – A Statement from the Alliance for the Advancement of Infant Mental Health
As an affiliate of the Alliance for the Advancement of Infant Mental Health,
NJ-AIMH fully supports the following statement:
As part of the global infant/early childhood mental health community, we are committed to deepening conversation and promoting reflection and action to address ongoing bias, structural racism, and racial violence that impacts the health and wellbeing of all our babies and their families.
We believe in the power of relationships to raise a collective voice against racism. We stand in solidarity with communities of color across the nation and the world and commit ourselves to mitigating the chronic trauma that racism has had on generations of children of color, their families, and the infant/early childhood workforce.
We hold in mind parents and caregivers of color who are tasked with protecting and creating a safe space for their babies while also managing their own emotions, as we also hold in mind the infant/early childhood mental health workforce of color who strive to hold and comfort families while managing their own emotions.
We believe that change and healing starts with each one of us. We must intentionally examine the ways we contribute to the continuation or dismantling of racial trauma and structural oppression.
We must respond with purpose and action. Our babies can’t wait.
With hope and love,
Staff and Board of Directors
Alliance for the Advancement of Infant Mental Health
Beyond Reflection: Advancing Reflective Supervision/Consultation (RS/C) to the Next Level
This paper focuses on reflective suprevision/consultation in the infant and early chuildhood mental health field.
Ten Tips for Talking with Children about Violence
- If you feel uncertain about how to start this conversation with children, practice with adults first. Notice the parts of the conversation where you might need assistance and ask for support from other adults.
- Ask children what they know and what they have heard. Listen to the child’s story and follow the child’s lead. Use simple language and correct any misunderstood accounts. Tell a child what they need to know, not all that you know.
- Be there and be calm. Monitor your own emotion and tone of voice. Pay attention to your gestures, affect, and voice because children pay special attention to these ways of communicating. Children scan the faces, voices, and movements of others to discern safety. Your presence, voice, words, soft and loving touches, provide each child with the best ways of feeling safe.
- Share your feelings. It is okay and important for children to know that the adults in their lives have the same feelings when bad things happen. Ask about their feelings. Often children will experience and express their feelings through their body states. Ask them “what” and “where” they feel (e.g., head, tummy, chest, neck, etc.) as well as “how” do they feel.
- Recognize that there are some feelings that we can only share and cannot fix: Children need us to be there with and for them at such times. It’s appropriate to both not have an answer and be with the children in their sadness and confusion.
- While we encourage telling children about the events of January 6th, monitor repeated exposure to images and reports of the events. Provide enough exposure to inform, but not frighten.
- If children do get scared, remember the 3R’s of security: Relationships, Routines and Restoration. Highlight relationships with familiar and consistent caregivers, family, and friends. Protect and increase routines that are familiar and normalizing.
- Provide structure and communicate safety: Uncertainty is the province of adulthood. While we as adults may feel unsure of the state of our democracy, we must always let children know that we will take care of them and protect them.
- A sense of mastery can help alleviate fear and uncertainty. Encourage your children to get involved in a community or service program such as collecting items for a food bank, making a call to their Congressperson, signing a petition, or writing a letter to someone in local government about something that they would like to help change in their community.
- Remember to take care of yourself: We have all been living with the collective stress of Covid-19 and political uncertainty for a l-o-n-g time. Yet, we know that if the adults in a child’s life are overwhelmed, overstressed, and overtired, it will be more difficult for the child to feel safe, secure and stable. Prioritize the cultivation of the “ABCs” of self-care: awareness, balance, and connection, in your own life.
(Costa, G. & Mulcahy, K, 2021)
Diez consejos para hablar con niños sobre la violencia
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IECMH Clinical Workforce Solution Pathways
We are pleased to remind you of a 5-part graphic from ZERO TO THREE!
IECMH Clinical Workforce Solution Pathways was co-created by stakeholders from around the country to capture the myriad of pathways of influence and opportunity related to increasing the size, diversity, quality, and accessibility of the Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health (IECMH) Clinical Workforce.
NJ-AIMH is pleased further to note that four of our members were a part of the contributors group: Gerry Costa, Kathy Mulrooney, Joaniko Kohchi, and Muhammad Zeshan, MD, a current Board member and ZERO TO THREE Fellow.
Take a look at this wonderful document and join me in thanking our members for their work.
Diversity-Informed Tenets for Work with Infants, Children and Families
NJ-AIMH is committed to supporting diversity, equity and inclusion, and the use of the Diversity-Informed Tenets for Work with Infants, Children and Families.
Kelly Gets a Vaccine: How We Beat Coronavirus
Kelly Gets a Vaccine: How We Beat Coronavirus
by Lauren Block MD MPH and Adam Block PhD; Illustrated by Debby Rahmalia
Discover along with 8-year-old Kelly the science behind the COVID-19 vaccine, what to expect during and after the vaccine, and how vaccination will help us begin to move beyond the pandemic.
Authors of “Kelly Stays Home: The Science of Coronavirus” and “Kelly Goes Back to School: More Science on Coronavirus” which have been downloaded over 25,000 times are back with their most important book yet on how the vaccine works and the importance of being vaccinated.
Governor Murphy Issues Worker Protections Executive Order
Today, October 28, 2020, in response to months of advocates’ work, Governor Murphy signed a Worker Protections Executive Order. Despite workers getting sick and even dying, the federal government has only issued recommendations, placing responsibility with the Governor to step up to ensure New Jersey workers’ health and safety from COVID-19 hazards.
The Worker Protections EO sets enforceable standards that virtually all employers must follow to protect their employees during the pandemic. These baseline standards include allowing proper social distancing, masks, sanitization, breaks for hand washing, notification of potential exposure to COVID-19 at the worksite, and following the requirements of applicable paid leave laws.
The Executive Order, which goes into effect on November 5th, mandates private and public employers implement uniform health and safety standards to protect all workers against the coronavirus, including:
Workers to keep at least 6 feet from each other “to the maximum extent possible.”
Workers and visitors to wear a face mask, with limited exceptions.
Employers to provide masks to workers at the company’s expense.
Employers to provide workers, customers, and visitors with sanitizing materials at the company’s expense.
Employers to conduct daily health checks of workers, such as temperature screenings, visual symptom checking, and more.
Employers to notify workers when there is possible exposure to the virus.
Employers to provide workers with breaks throughout the day to wash their hands.
Employers to routinely clean and disinfect frequently touched areas in accordance to state and federal guidelines.
The New Jersey Department of Labor (DOL) will launch a new webpage to field complaints from workers. The DOL and the Department of Health will both be able to investigate and enforce the EO. The state is also investing $400,000 in trainings so that workers can identify COVID-19 related workplace health and safety hazards and have the tools to be able to speak up when violations of the EO are not resolved by their employers.
Is Child Care Safe When School Isn’t? Ask An Early Educator.
The Center for the Study of Child Care Employment (CSCCE) at the University of California-Berkeley just last week published a great new read on their website, titled, “Is Child Care Safe When School Isn’t? Ask An Early Educator.” The illuminating article explores the fact that schools provide child care—not just education—and with in-person learning all-but evaporating for millions of K-12 students this fall, families are scrambling to find care amid the pandemic. The result? The essential service that is provided by schools on a daily basis is being sorely missed on both counts.
Report Examines Adverse Childhood Experiences in Early Childhood
A recent report from the Center for American Progress (CAP) examined U.S. Census Bureau’s National Survey of Children’s Health to better understand the prevalence of ACEs specifically in young children. CAP’s analysis found that more than 1 in 4 young children in the United States have been exposed to at least one ACE. Reflecting the societal patterns of America’s racial bias, the researchers also found that children of color are disproportionately more likely to have exposure to ACEs in early childhood.
