Mental Health Awareness: The Critical First Few Years

May is Mental Health Awareness Month.

Did you know that mental health isn’t only for teens and adults? Infant and early childhood mental health are just as important.  

“It’s about setting the foundation for future mental health and creating and fostering resiliency at an early age, because the first few years of life are critical for brain development,” said Melanie Heindl, Clinical Supervisor at Wellpoint Care Network.

According to Harvard’s Center on the Developing Child, “Early experiences affect the development of brain architecture, which provides the foundation for all future learning, behavior and health. Just as a weak foundation compromises the quality and strength of a house, adverse experiences early in life can impair brain architecture, with negative effects lasting into adulthood.”

But what exactly is infant mental health? No, it’s not a baby sitting on a couch having talk therapy. At this stage, parents and caregivers play an important role. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) says that role includes “providing positive learning experiences, buffering young children from the stresses of hardship or threat, and nurturing the early development of adaptive skills that are the building blocks of resilience.”

So, learning and education for those caregivers is a critical piece — making sure they are prepared with the right tools and resources.

“In infant mental health work, we focus on adults to address what they’re experiencing and support them as a parent, caregiver, teacher or educator,” added Heindl. “It’s a lot of prevention work and really trying to bolster and create a solid foundation for the child. If we can identify and troubleshoot concerns or behaviors as they come up, we can integrate strategies to support the child’s mental health.”

The focus on infant and early childhood mental health practices seems to have increased in the last couple years. This is due to increased numbers in diagnosed mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression, increased numbers in suicide rates and increased numbers in drug- or alcohol-related deaths.

At Wellpoint Care Network, we’ve known that early intervention is a key component to healing and the ability to truly thrive. We’ve been doing this work for several years in different capacities, including being at the forefront of Trauma Informed Care, an organizational philosophy infused across our continuum of care.

“Within our school-based mental health programming, we provide consultation to schools and teachers on how to support their young ones,” said Heindl. “We’ve recently gone even younger in partnering with early care centers —preschools, daycares — and again, trying to support the teachers. Providing teachers with tips on how to regulate themselves in what can be chaotic environments with children all over, so that they can in turn model that regulation so that everyone can feel as happy and healthy as they can be. We’ve also done a lot of play-based work with children and families. A lot of times, we also try to integrate the caregiver into our therapy services because they are a crucial part of what we do. Therapy may last one or two hours a week, but then the caregiver can integrate what they learn throughout the rest of the week. Finally, we do work with Milwaukee’s Healthy Infant Court, a successful problem-solving court in the state. We work with families, and the goal is for children to reach lasting permanency quicker, through reunification with parents, adoption or placement with a legal guardian.”

The latest example of this important and impactful work was done thanks to a grant from the Wisconsin Child Abuse & Neglect Prevention Board.

“About a year and a half ago, we started working with Ebenezer Child Care Center and Aemilian Preschool to provide consultation services to support teachers,” added Heindl. “It’s a nice way for teachers to be able to bounce ideas off me. They already know the direction they’re going, but it’s nice to provide some of that validation or provide feedback like, ‘Have you thought about doing that this way? Or thought about the environment in this manner?’ We’ve also had the opportunity to do some parent groups where we do education and promote play between parents and children. In the future, we hope to do more work with parents, encouraging them to take care of themselves.”

For Heindl, this work is something she is truly passionate about.

“Just the energy of children is so contagious. I have an almost-four-year-old and an almost-two-year-old — they’re our future.”

Infant and early childhood mental health sets the foundation for the rest of life. Heindl hopes this critical work continues to stay in focus and that more organizations join the mission.

“This is our chance to really create some of that lasting impact as early as we can.”

To learn more about Wellpoint Care Network’s Mental Health Services, click here.