Prof. Paris & Colleagues Develop Free Curriculum Guide on Infant & Early Childhood Mental Health
As part of a series from the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE), Prof. Ruth Paris helped develop a free curriculum guide on infant and early childhood mental health (IECMH). While there has been a movement to integrate more focus in this area, only a few schools including Boston University School of Social Work offer a specialized course. The CSWE guide is an important step toward incorporating more social work specialization in this underrepresented area, which can significantly impact the lives of infants, their parents, and their communities.
Through worksheets, illustrative case studies, reflection exercises, and other assignments, the curriculum guide focuses on several infant and early childhood mental health competencies, including how to:
- Demonstrate ethical and professional behavior
- Engage diversity and difference in practice
- Advance human rights and social, economic, and environmental justice
- Engage in research-informed practice and practice-informed research
- Engage in policy practice
- Engage, assess, and intervene, and evaluate practice with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities
By making the guide freely available to the public, Prof. Paris and the CSWE hope that IECMH education will become more widespread. “Professional training at all levels often does not match what is necessary for the provision of mental health services to infants and young children, as well as research focused on their needs,” says Prof. Paris. “The IECMH framework should be integrated into curricula so that all students of social work receive training in IECMH principles.”