Join Pathwaves and the UW School of Social Work for a panel discussion: BIPOC Leadership Toward Early Relational Health. The panel will feature Washington State Senator T’wina Nobles, Sheila Ater Capestany, Strategic Advisor for Children and Youth at King County, and Dr. Nucha Isarowong, Director of the Advanced Clinical Training Program at Barnard Center for Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health. The panel will be moderated by Fernanda Martinez Novoa, Pathwaves Washington Fellow at Akin (formerly Childhaven).
April 24, 2:30-4pm at UW School of Social Work. Space is very limited, please RSVP here.
We are honored to hear from these leaders on the vital importance of early relational health, an enhanced focus of Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health (IECMH). In anticipation of this panel discussion, we are highlighting insights from Pathwaves Fellow and moderator, Fernanda. She has focused much of her career on this work, and shares about its importance in the context of early childhood policy.
Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health (IECMH) is a core element in the early childhood sector. Adverse Childhood Experiences and Adverse Community Environments (ACEs) during pregnancy and childhood can have lifelong impacts on human development. Conversely, nurturing relationships in the first years of life can make a lasting difference on the trajectory of an adult.
Children grow and learn when they feel safe and their basic needs are met. This sense of safety comes from the relationships they create with their caregivers. Without this sense of safety, babies and toddlers’ brains become stressed, preventing them from healthy development.
Understanding the importance of IECMH is key to developing programs with a holistic approach, and creating a system that focuses on early intervention. There is well-documented research that makes the case for why this issue is of vital importance.
I was first introduced to IECMH when I became an Early Head Start Home Visitor. These home visits promote child development through healthy parent-child relationships and safe environments. I worked as a home visitor for about 2 years before transitioning to Akin, where I have been working for over 5 years.
Akin’s work focuses on strengthening families, preventing childhood trauma, and preparing children for a lifetime of well-being. In my previous position as an Early Childhood Developmental Navigator (Family Navigator), I worked with caregivers to emphasize the importance of building strong caregiver-child relationships. I demonstrated how this strength is reflected in a child’s development, identified possible delays, referred children to developmental services, and helped families navigate complex systems for necessary support. I worked tirelessly to help families overcome the barriers they faced, which ranged from transportation needs, complicated paperwork, to translation.
As home visitors and Family Navigators, we became part of the support systems for caregivers and families. In my current role as a Policy Specialist, I am still connected with Akin’s Healthcare Integration Team, home of the Family Navigators, where we often reflect on how trauma impacts people’s lives and identify how service providers can support caregivers. We also focus on the systemic barriers that families with infants and toddlers face. I recently joined the Prenatal-5 Relational Health subgroup. It is helpful to be a part of a group that exposes me to the various priorities and topics being discussed regarding legislation to support the IECMH sector.
I continue to be a strong advocate for systems that support children aged 0-5 and their caregivers, populations that are not often the focus of policy making. As a direct service provider, I observed how crucially important the support network built by programs like Early Head Start, Early ECEAP and Family Navigators are to alleviate the stress of the caregiver and their child. We must provide services to children AND their caregivers in order to advance their overall health and life trajectory. I am excited to continue to learn and grow in my own advocacy and leadership to support the development of policy solutions for infant and early childhood mental health.
