About NCIMHA
Our purpose is to equip and support North Carolina’s infant and early childhood mental health professionals.
We support our members with a model for Reflective Supervision and a platform for networking with peers.
NCIMHA commits to upholding the Diversity-Informed Tenets for Work with Infants, Children, and Families.
Our people make the difference
Our members promote nurturing environments and foundational relationships for all children, building a healthy future through emotional, cognitive, and social growth.
Members
Endorsed Professionals
Endorsement Categories
Learn More
Our history
NCIMHA was founded in 2011 to promote, advocate for, and train the early childhood workforce. In 2012 the NC Institute of Medicine recommended that NCIMHA take the lead in organizing state agencies to address the challenges facing professionals working to meet the mental health needs of infants, toddlers, and young children.
In 2019 NCIMHA joined the World Association of Infant Mental Health and started the discovery process of offering an internationally recognized Endorsement credentials through the Alliance for the Advancement of Infant Mental Health. In 2021 funds awarded through a grant were used to support the purchase of the Competency Guidelines for Endorsement for Culturally Sensitive, Relationship-Focused Practice Promoting Infant Mental Health® (Endorsement).
In 2021 NCIMHA created the Statewide Advisory Council, comprised of professionals from across the spectrum of the IECMH field. Together, they propose strategies to strengthen the workforce and connect families with children (0 through 5) to crucial mental health and family support services within their communities.
In October 2021, North Carolina became the 32nd state to launch the Alliance’s Infant Mental Health Endorsement® (IMH-E®) system. A Leadership Cohort led the first group of professionals to become Endorsed in 2022.
Towards the end of 2022, NCIMHA was awarded funds through a grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to establish an annual Reflective Supervision Learning Collaborative and to develop a resource catalog of IECMH and RSC offerings in North Carolina.
Vision
That every North Carolina child will grow up in nurturing foundational relationships and supportive environments that provide the basis for emotional, cognitive, and social capacities necessary for a healthy future.
Mission
To promote mental health for children birth through age 5 and expectant parents by collaborating to strengthen early childhood systems and developing an effective and supported workforce.
NCIMHA Partners
Funding Partners
North Carolina Division of Child Development and Early Education (DCDEE)
DCDEE implements quality standards for child care and increases access to families and their children across North Carolina. They are generously funding NCIMHA’s work on Endorsement through their Preschool Development Grant. Learn more about their work here.
Advancing Resources for Children (ARCh) Project: Connecting NC’s Systems to Strengthen Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Outcomes
The ARCh project at the Center for Child & Family Health (CCFH) is funded by a 5-year Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health (IECMH) grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to improve outcomes of NC children ages birth to five by increasing access to services and advancing workforce capacity to effectively meet their needs. The ARCh project partners with agencies around the state to increase cross-disciplinary knowledge of IECMH through free training, to expand mental health consultation, to support equitable readiness for IECMH endorsement, and to reduce disparities in access to developmentally-sensitive, culturally-responsive, trauma-informed, and evidence-based IECMH practices. Learn more about ARCh here.
Associations
Alliance for the Advancement of Infant Mental Health
The Alliance is a global organization that partners with associations of infant mental health so that associations can support, grow, diversify, and advocate for their local infant & early childhood mental health-informed workforce. Learn more about their work here.
World Association for Infant Mental Health
WAIHM’s central aim is to promote the mental well-being and healthy development of infants throughout the world, taking into account cultural, regional, and environmental variations, and to generate and disseminate scientific knowledge. Learn more about their work here.