What is the Early Childhood Mental Health Awareness Training (EC-MHAT) Program?

The Early Childhood Mental Health Awareness Training (EC-MHAT) Program is a training program funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) with a project period from April 2020 to April 2023.

The Mental Health Awareness Training (MHAT) grant program from SAMHSA aims to prepare and train community members and first responders (e.g., educators) on how to appropriately and safely respond to individuals with mental disorders or behavioral health concerns. Visit SAMHSA Mental Health Awareness and Training for more about MHAT.

Who is part of the EC-MHAT Program?

Our project, the Early Childhood Mental Health Awareness Training (EC-MHAT) Program, is housed within Children’s National Hospital and is implemented in partnership with Georgetown School of Medicine and the Early Childhood Innovation Network. We also have partnered with consultants in the DC metropolitan area over the course of our project, such as the Institute of African American Mindfulness (IAAM).

What is the goal of the EC-MHAT Program?

The EC-MHAT Program is designed to increase the capacity of early childhood educators of PreK children from ages 3 to 5 to recognize and appropriately respond to the needs of young children at risk for mental or social emotional health concerns, especially those whose mental or social emotional health has been directly impacted by systemic racism.

We define early childhood educators as professionals in the education field who have direct contact with children, including but not limited to, teachers, teachers’ assistants/aides, paraprofessionals, coaches, administrators, family child care providers/owners, related service professionals, mental health clinicians, behavioral health consultants, and other professionals in schools. Our trainings can also be provided to families and caregivers whose children attend educational sites that are receiving our trainings.

How does the EC-MHAT Program work?

We accomplish our goal by increasing early childhood educators’ knowledge and awareness of 1) early childhood social-emotional development, including understanding typical development, mental health challenges and disorders, and screening, 2) how to respond to mental health concerns, including communicating with families and providing appropriate resources, and 3) strategies for promoting their own self-care and wellness as educators.

Corresponding trainings are also offered for families to increase families’ knowledge and awareness of early childhood social-emotional development, how to respond to mental or behavioral health concerns in their children and wellness strategies to promote their own self-care.

Our training uses the CLI Engage curriculum as its base and includes additional content tailored to meet sites’ needs, such as training on the administration of social-emotional screening measures. Mindfulness and sharing micro-restorative practices are core components of all our trainings in recognition of the impact that adult wellness has on early childhood development. 

Does the EC-MHAT Program speak to ECIN’s racial equity goals?

Early on, the EC-MHAT team engaged in crucial conversations involving the complex interplay of institutional policies related to white supremacy, race, and culture. The team completed the Michigan State University ABLe Change Equity Impact Assessment to better understand how inequities affect our work and develop strategies to mitigate these impacts. This resulted in applying cultural humility and language justice to our approach to partnerships, service delivery, and evaluation.

Project Consultants and Partners

Social-Emotional Learning Videos

The EC-MHAT Program created a series of videos for early childhood educators and parents covering topics related to social-emotional wellness.

Mindfulness Videos

The EC-MHAT Program created a series of videos that highlight mindfulness practices.

Newsletters

These newsletters from the EC-MHAT Program were designed for educators and contain information about social-emotional wellness and current or community events.

• March 2023: English, Spanish

• February 2023: English, Spanish

• January 2023: English, Spanish

• Winter 2022: English, Spanish

• Fall 2022: English, Spanish

CLI Engage

• The CLI Engage website houses free resources for educators and families of children ages 0-6 in English and Spanish.

• The CIRCLE Activity Collection: Family translates child development research into practice by providing a variety of hands-on activities that families can do at home. These free resources are available in English and in Spanish.

Ages & Stages Questionnaires

• The Ages & Stages Questionnaires®: Social-Emotional, Second Edition (ASQ®:SE-2) is a screening tool administered to parents and caregivers that can be used to assess social-emotional concerns in young children.

• The ASQ-3 is a screening tool for overall development across multiple domains in early childhood.

SAMHSA Resources

If you or someone you know needs support now, call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org.

Promote the 988 resource with SAMHSA’s Partner Toolkit.

Local Resource

The Child and Adolescent Mental Health Resource Guide on DC Health Check has a list of community mental health providers for reference.  

For more information, please email CMHCORE@childrensnational.org.