Improving Emotional and Social Well-Being with Childhood Mental Health Consultations

In this episode, we sit with Flora McCormick and learn about Project Launch and early childhood mental health consultations (ECMHCs), and how they are combatting the social isolation of the pandemic to provide the best possible social and emotional well-being for our children. We also learn about the value of emotional intelligence at a young age and how ECMHCs are helping bolster the skills and tools of parents, caregivers and early childhood educators, so they can best support children in their care.

For more information, contact Amber Rogers at arogers@mpqfh.org.

Sustainable Parenting podcast: https://sustainableparenting.buzzsprout.com/ 

Transcript

Flora McCormick  00:00

And if we want to be able to give the best possible of our own emotion regulation, then it really helps if someone's coming alongside to point out what you're doing well, offer some support and suggestions if there's an area you're feeling stuck in, and that's certainly what an early childhood mental health consultant can do.

Beth Brown  00:24

Welcome to Breaking Barriers in Rural Health, a limited series podcast from Mountain Pacific. We are sharing what is working in rural mental health and health care and discussing ways to replicate these successes. We're also shining sunlight where it's needed by identifying breakdowns and gaps in care. Ultimately, we aim to improve the health and well being of our health care communities and anyone listening in to this podcast. Now, here's the latest episode in Breaking Barriers in Rural Health.

Amber Rogers 01:00

Welcome, everybody. This is the Breaking Barriers in Rural Health podcast, and I'm your host, Amber Rogers. And I have the distinct pleasure of introducing Flora McCormick. And so, we're going to talk about infant and early childhood mental health consultation. And that is a huge mouthful. 

Flora McCormick  01:23

Yes. 

Amber Rogers  01:24

And so first of all, just to kind of set the playing field and or playpen, or whatever analogy we would like to make, it might seem a little weird for people to talk about babies and toddlers needing mental health. Can you describe a little bit about what infant, early childhood mental health consultation is really designed to do for our little babies and toddlers?

Flora McCormick  01:54

Absolutely. So thank you so much for having me, Amber. You know, my background is, I'm a licensed therapist, and I've done- I've been an early childhood mental health consultant and parenting coach, and this new area of early childhood mental health consultation, which I'll say throughout the rest of this time, we might abbreviate that as ECMHC, if that's okay with our listeners. The ECMHC intention is to really support our children to have the best start socially and emotionally. And of course, we know it's a trickle down effect. Those that are providing the support to the children need to have the best possible resources, both in the way of bolstering their skills, and also in the way of just bolstering them as human beings. This is a really relational model, because we know that relationships are one of the most important tools we ever have in education, and certainly in therapy. And so the ECMHC role and the the task that we have there is to be supporting our amazing educators and being a support resource for them in any way possible so that they can meet the social, emotional needs of the children. 

Amber Rogers  03:14

Yeah, those little young minds are growing exponentially and just soaking up all the world around them, and to really make sure that that- I like that idea of a healthy start in life. 

Flora McCormick  03:27

Yeah, and let me be clear, it's not about like, fixing our kids or something like that when we- Again, back to your question about what is mental health, really, for these little toddlers and infants or in early education, it's about the social, emotional well being. And we know that this EQ, like an emotional intelligence, is now being seen as even more important in life success than that standard view of intelligence, IQ. So EQ, emotional intelligence more important even than IQ, in terms of the likelihood that someone's going to be successful. And I think we all know this as adults, right, people that we've worked with or been in relationships with, that when someone can be incredibly brilliant, but if they can't understand their emotions and be able to get them in check or be able to tune into the emotions of others and know how to communicate around those emotions. I mean, we are relational human beings, and we know that a child's greatest need is for significance and belonging, and so we want to make sure they're having positive ways to get that sense of significance and belonging, and not needing to reach out with negative behaviors or patterns. So, you know, it's so, so important that we start out early, early on, to see that these expressions of tantrums or stealing a toy from another child or just melting down or blowing up are all pathways that could lead to a really unsuccessful adult if they are not addressed. And the sooner they're addressed, the better. We know that these social emotional patterns, the more we can address them before five, that's our most effective period to have the biggest impact. Not that we can't have an impact later, but we just know that such a thick, foundational time in our child's, you know, creation of who they're going to be in the future. 

Amber Rogers  05:24

True. Yeah, you're setting up patterns for for the rest of your life, really. I mean, not to say that people can't change because they do when they- but it's harder. 

Flora McCormick  05:34

Yeah, those pathways are the most malleable in those early years. So, so then you also add the pandemic on top of this, where many of our children, zero to five, didn't have as much social interaction and peer to peer places to really start learning skills and interacting around older peers to see positive modeling. You know, we match that with the fact that our caregivers were also incredibly stressed by the pandemic, with the isolation and loneliness and lack of social connection themselves. You put both of those pieces together, and we've got an environment in the early childhood setting right now that really needs support.

Amber Rogers 06:19

Yes, and for all of you that our parents right now have been a parent, considering being a parent or even just caregiver to other other little ones, you know how exhausting that can be, and the demands are, are incredible, and our child serving programs and people that are doing that caregiving need that support as well, and this is really designed to help them improve their skills, correct?

Flora McCormick  06:20

Yes, exactly. We know there's a variety of folks that may start an early childhood education center. And that could be a grandparent. That could be a mom who's at home with their kid and decides to open a center to be with other children. It could be a highly skilled person that had a degree in child development. There are many different folks that can come to this role professionally, or, of course, personally, grandma, mom and so many different people end up caretaking children.  And yes, we can all admit, anyone who has been in some caretaking role of a child that it's like the hardest job you'll ever love, right? It is, you know? Of course, it's an amazing privilege and honor to be developing these loving relationships, and it is challenging. It's- It takes a lot. And so there's this saying that you know you cannot give what you do not have. And if we want to be able to give the best possible of our own emotion regulation, our ability to model problem solving, then it really helps if someone's coming alongside to put a hand around your shoulder, kind of figuratively or literally, to say, point out what you're doing well, offer some support and suggestions if there's an area you're feeling stuck in, and that's certainly what an early childhood mental health consultant can do. 

Amber Rogers  08:18

Yes, it's really helpful, and I think decreasing those feelings of isolation and just lack of support, because there's a huge turnover in early education and providers doing this work, I know that people struggle with finding child care, and if we can keep people in the system longer and feeling more satisfied, everybody will be better served our, our parents and caregivers. But also, of course, the children themselves. That's super important. 

Flora McCormick  08:56

Yeah, we want to bolster the people that are doing work in early childhood education sites, we want to be supporting them and helping them feel like they've got someone they can talk to, where they can get support and feel cared for. You know, in any industry, if you're isolated, you struggle more, I think, in your caregiving work. Every single field, whether you're a nurse or you're a fireman or you're a public school elementary teacher, the systems have been created to make sure you're not an island, alone out there doing your work. But that you've got places to check in about what was hard on a hard day, or celebrate what was good on a good day. We know that that helps you feel more able to maintain the longevity of staying in this field.  And obviously, everyone benefits when we have folks who have stayed and longevity in the field, you have more expertise and more experience. So certainly, we're hoping this early childhood mental health consultation role can support caregivers to stay longer, feel like someone's really got their back, because I- it's something missing in this field. It really is. The sites can end up feeling a bit like islands. And so that's certainly one of my biggest passions, is just being able to come in and say, "I'm someone outside of your island here, coming in to be curious, to be interested, to show initiative that you matter, and to give you the feedback that you matter, and give you reminders of all the things that you're doing amazingly," because it's just so important and it's really missing in the education for early childhood right now.

Amber Rogers  10:37

And I also just want to let our audience know that this program, we're currently in a building and testing phase of this. It has been done in limited communities in Salish Kootenai, as well as the Bozeman area, under a different name, which was called Project Launch. But we are really trying to build this system in Montana. And so, if you are a child care provider and you would like to receive consultation, and you're listening to this for the very first time, you can feel free to reach out to us. A nd I'll put it in the show notes for everybody, so that you can get my email to request consultation, because we do have consultants across the state that have been trained and have been doing this work for quite a while, for some of them and some of some other folks are relatively new and just completed training. So we are building systems and getting things organized and testing them, because we would like to see this become not a grant project, one and done. But something that can be sustained over many, many, many years. We're building that infrastructure, and it's a little crazy right now, but-

Flora McCormick  11:58

So exciting! I mean, any child care provider that I have told about this, their eyes just light up and they're like, "Really? We can have access to that support, and we don't have to try to find out where on earth we would have room in our budget for it?" Because their budgets are just, you know, threadbare. So I'm so thankful that the state has put this is a priority. Our young kids are certainly just so important to our future, and it just is going to have a trickle down effect, I think, for years and years.  So it's well worth it, and yes, anyone that's interested, I just want to point out on the real logistical side, just keep in mind that even if you are in a location you don't think anyone would be nearby, we have some ability, as long as someone's within a certain distance range, to have pieces that are in person and pieces that are virtual. If you think "My organization is just too bus." You know, we really cater it and work with each center to meet your need and meet you where you're at and what best serves you if we're sitting next to you over papers of finger painting and, you know, swapping thoughts there, that's how we do it. So please know that we are folks who are experienced in working with kids and families. And so this is very, very connected teamwork, and we'll just, we bring it to you in the midst of your busy work, we make it work. 

Amber Rogers  13:26

And also, if you are currently an LCSW or LCPC, and you're interested in this work, our training program is set to be launched in October. That will be live, and you'll be able to take that course for free during this grant period. And so we, we need more- We need more people that are doing this work, especially in our rural areas. We have quite a few consultants that are already trained in this model, but we are definitely lacking some providers, especially in the more rural areas. So most of the consultants that are trained are residing in our larger cities, which is nice, but we would really love to increase the number of folks available in our rural areas, because we know that that's a that's a high need population as well.

Flora McCormick  14:25

Yeah, and let me just say to those providers who would consider it, it's such a nice thing to be able to add to your kind of grouping of services that you offer. If you're someone who has worked with children and family, I mean, just really, on a professional level, it's a great way to add some diversity to your week, so you're not just session to session to session. But to mix something like this in, it's a really- it's just fun. It's great to be in the child care centers. It's really fun to connect and see the different orientation of being around kids in their, in their child care sites. So I've really enjoyed the variety that it's added to my own schedule as a therapist

Amber Rogers 15:08

Well, and it's just nice to kind of maybe get ahead of a problem, because this is really a prevention-based model, and so if we can provide that healthy start, perhaps we'll have less mental health problems down the road by starting people off right.

Flora McCormick  15:25

Absolutely, and I think that makes me think I want to just make sure to honor here that we know that early child caregivers often have this already in their sights. They are doing many things to offer a good start to the kids in terms of their mental health. It's just that we want to come in and add any additional support that you might be feeling, or help to nurture you if you've been in a state of burnout, help to you know, resolve things that might be causing staff to leave because they're feeling stuck. So just to honor that, I know it is something on the radar of all of our wonderful educators.

Amber Rogers 16:10

And we were just recently at a conference, and it was very, very helpful to know that almost everybody that stopped by our table, this is well known out there. So people want it and people need it. We just need to connect the dots and make sure we have, we have more consultants to spread around the state. 

Flora McCormick  16:32

I hope we've helped today to help our listeners understand a little more of what this role is for both education sites and possible future therapists in this work.

Amber Rogers  16:42

Yes. So Flora, do you have a story that you can tell us? 

Flora McCormick  16:47

Yeah, I think of, you know, one of my favorite stories of the positive outcome of this work is, I think of a school that have very skilled, wonderful educators, but we're just really stuck and frustrated with a particular couple of boys, let's be honest, they were these boys that were kind of your stereotype of really physically active and having a hard time to focus and stick within the rules and just kind of had their own agenda, and they were, you know, basically what some people would summarize as not listening very well. And the school, and anyone who has been in, you know, a parent or caregiver, can probably connect to what that feels like. So frustrating, they felt like they tried everything, but said, "Okay, let's talk with you, Flora, as a mental health consultant, what? What are we missing here? What else can we do?"  And in our talking together, you know, the ECMHC role a lot is first about just asking effective questions, so trying to do some digging and uncovering of what maybe they're already doing well, or had tried in the past, but lost track of continuing. So we uncovered some things that they said, Oh yes, you're right. We had been doing this type of intervention with him, and we kind of lost track of that after spring break. So let's get back to that. So some of it we were able to uncover and just remind them of some of their past successes.  Secondly, I offered some different thoughts about how to see his challenging behavior, the possible sources I was hearing as they told the story, and they quickly were able to say, gosh, we had not thought about it that way. And as you're pointing out, that perspective, it feels more hopeful. It's like, Oh, yeah. I mean, specifically around this kid, it was choices. We were talking about the "What Should Danny Do?" choices book. And he has a cape that says, "Did you know we all have the power to choose?" He has a cape that says P2C. And it was like, you know, instead of just focusing on redirecting him or having consequences, this kid really liked to be in control, so he said, "Let's keep pointing out to him what his positive choices lead to and what his sad choices lead to."  And as simple as that might be, it really gave them a lot of hope of just some different language, a different book that they could use to emphasize that language. And then the next time we talked a month later, they said it was so powerful for this particular boy and that reminding him every morning about his power to choose, and, you know, using this that language throughout their staff in a more unified way, every time they had interventions with him, he was no longer at risk of honestly being kicked out of the school, which was where they were at at the beginning of working together.  So to me, that was a huge success. And that's the type of way that it, you know, really works, is these small bits of having someone hear your story from a little bit outside perspective, ask some questions to help you uncover things you might be missing or have lost track of. And then offer a little bit of a fresh perspective, and you choose from that perspective, what does feel aligned for you? Those are the pieces that I've seen. Then be able to really give the staff more hope, more positive outcomes, and then feeling more refreshed in their work.

Amber Rogers 20:18

Awesome, awesome. Kind of to wrap up our conversation, I also want to put a plug in for your podcast that you do yourself, because I've listened to a few episodes and my, my children are completely, fully grown adults now, but it is a wonderful resource. So can you tell us a little bit about your podcast, because the listeners, if they're in that caregiving situation, might actually appreciate just knowing a little bit about that and having some options there.

Flora McCormick  20:53

Absolutely. So if you are looking for a space to get some more parenting support, I know there's so much out there. It's like one more thing telling me what to do or "shoulding" on me. We always say parents are getting "should" on so much. And you know what that sounds. We don't want to be making people feel that way. So I just want you to know my idea in this podcast is to always be trying to offer some tools and empowerment so that you can feel more effective and empowered in parenting and not one more place making you just feel shame or blame more guilty. So I try to offer their encouragement as well as really concrete strategies so that you can have more positive outcomes in terms of kids being more cooperative and more connected in your relationship.  And my podcast is called Sustainable Parenting, because I found that before I had sustainable tools, I was bouncing back and forth between kind of gentle mom, kind mom, and then monster mom, when it wasn't working, and the being upset, and then like feeling bad about that, and back over to gentle mom, and it just wasn't sustainable. I was exhausted, the highs and the lows, and so my strategies that I worked out on my own and through all my continuing education and in dealing work with several parents as a parenting coach turned into tools I now consider being more sustainable. So my goal is to give you tools that are kind and firm at the same time so that parenting finally feels sustainable.

Amber Rogers 22:29

That's awesome. Awesome. It's a great resource for folks. 

Flora McCormick  22:33

Yes, please join. It's free. It's on Apple podcast or Spotify, or wherever you receive podcasts, you should be able to find it well. 

Amber Rogers  22:41

Thank you so much for your time today, Flora. And I hope our audience has learned a little bit about this model that they haven't heard of, mental health consultation, before. So if you're a caregiver, give us a call, and I will have those links in our show notes for you to contact us.

Flora McCormick  23:01

Thank you, and thank you so much for your leadership. Amber.

Amber Rogers  23:04

Oh, you're welcome. Thank you.

Beth Brown  23:12

Thank you for listening. Be sure to subscribe to Breaking Barriers in Rural Health and learn more about Mountain Pacific at www.mpqhf.org.