Racism, inequalities, and injustices continue to exist in American social structures, institutions, and systems of care. This article explores how the field of mental health is influenced by practices rooted in White supremacy culture and requires a paradigm shift toward a multidimensional view of risk, resilience, and protective factors. Becoming…

The University of Colorado PROMISE Clinic is an integrated mental health program housed in the obstetrics/gynecology outpatient clinics. A team of medical and mental health professionals care for a racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse patient population. They provide integrated mental health services from consultation through…

The opioid epidemic and related substance abuse reaches far and wide, with many newborns across the country left to endure the consequences. What follows is a unique, first-person account of a "Story From the Field" that highlights the experiences of one mother as she watched her adopted daughter suffer the effects of neonatal abstinence…

Trauma early in life can significantly impair children's development, mental health, and learning, placing them at risk for poor mental and physical health problems throughout life. Young children experience trauma more often, and are more vulnerable to its harmful effects, than older children. Early childhood education (ECE) programs regularly…

During pregnancy, low-income women are at high risk for depression and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but they are unlikely to receive mental health services. As a follow-up to Narayan et al. (2017), we provide a detailed picture of pregnant women's mental health service (MHS) need versus utilization. Results suggested that the majority of…

Many hospitals and academic medical settings lag behind in promoting key initiatives focused on advancing maternal, infant, and early childhood mental health. Yet, systems are dynamic and change is possible. This article highlights Fellows' efforts to infuse maternal, infant, and early childhood mental health understanding and approaches into…

Infants and toddlers account for a disproportionate percentage of children diagnosed with cancer. These young children and their families benefit when infant and early childhood mental health is recognized as vital and integrated with medical treatment. Such interventions are beneficial for supporting families in coping when cancer is the only…

Infants are born primed to develop attachment relationships. However, when infants are hospitalized in the neonatal intensive care unit at birth, the stress and trauma associated with the highly specialized medical environment can threaten the development of a nurturing and secure caregiving relationship. Infant mental health is an evidence-based…

The Tennessee First Five Training Institute (TFFTI) is a workforce development project to build infant and early childhood mental health (IECMH) capacity across Tennessee's community mental health agencies. TFFTI focused on foundational trainings in IECMH concepts, training in child-parent psychotherapy, dyadic, trauma treatment for children birth…

What key ingredients are needed to effectively promote the mental health and resilience of young children in American Indian and Alaska Native communities? What should non-indigenous allies know when working with Indigenous communities and partners to support young child wellness? What elements and contexts should be taken into consideration when…

This article will address immigration as a psychosocial event and will describe the different stages of the immigration process, when immigration becomes traumatic, and how each immigration stage can place vulnerable Latin American families at high risk for traumatic stress. It will explore pre-migration experiences and the factors bringing young…

Child- and family-serving programs in community-based settings wield tremendous power for improving the lives of infants and toddlers. In this article, three authors, from Ohio, Montana, and Sierra Leone, describe the principles of adaptive leadership and will share their real-world applications. Their stories explore critical questions for…

This article describes some of the extraordinary accomplishments of the second cohort of states to participate in the Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Financing Policy Project (IECMH-FPP). The purpose of the IECMHFPP is to support states' advancement of IECMH assessment, diagnosis, and treatment policies that will contribute to the healthy…

Women from minority populations, such as Mexican-American women, face unique social and cultural stressors that are different from men and women in the majority population. These differences have important consequences for the physical and mental health of pregnant mothers and contribute to perinatal health inequalities. As the population in the…

This article presents an overview of the Healthy Steps for Young Children (Healthy Steps) program at Montefiore Medical Center, in the Bronx, NY. The authors review the theoretical underpinnings of this national program for the promotion of early childhood mental health. The Healthy Steps program at Montefiore is integrated into outpatient…