Here at Strategies for Children, COVID-19 has kept our advocacy focus on funding, health, and safety. Now that early childhood programs are reopening, we want to shine a spotlight on mental health.
As children, parents, and staff members continue to navigate life during a pandemic, they may need help managing mental health challenges.
Young children face a particularly high risk of being negatively impacted by the pandemic, Aditi Subramaniam said during a Strategies for Children Zoom call. She is the Early Childhood Mental Health Partnership Manager at the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.
Children may experience intense feelings or regress developmentally, and it may be emotionally tough for them to engage in social distancing, Subramaniam added. Fortunately, this risk can be mitigated by ensuring that children receive nurturing, responsive, and consistent care from caregivers and providers.
To help children, caregivers and providers can draw on several resources.
One is MassAIMH, the Massachusetts Association for Infant Mental Health, which has a resource webpage that includes videos and links for parents and providers. There are stories and tips for how to talk to young children about the pandemic, including a ‘Going Back to School’ social story template, as well as information about stress, anxiety, and self-care for adults.
Massachusetts has released a set resources for early educators put together by the state’s Office of the Child Advocate and the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMass Medical). Included are videos and tip sheets in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, and Simplified Chinese. This is a useful supplement to the Health and Safety Guidelines released by the Department of Early Education and Care.
Another resource is a new COVID-19 report from the Childhood Trauma Task Force. Formed by the Massachusetts Legislature in 2018, the task force’s work was to “better identify and provide services to children who have experienced trauma, with the goal of preventing future juvenile justice system involvement.”
Among the task force’s observations about the pandemic:
• “under-resourced communities will require targeted support”
• “our current behavioral health system cannot adequately meet the needs of children during this crisis”
• “technology-based resources hold the potential to overcome many (but not all) barriers to mental health services – if allocated equitably,” and
• “there are many existing initiatives and intervention models focused on childhood trauma and mental health upon which we can build”
The task force’s recommendations include expanding communities’ capacity to provide culturally competent behavioral services as well as building the skills of the “child-serving ‘front line’ to address traumatic stress and behavioral health needs.”
One example:
“The Building Resilient Children initiative, funded by the Office of the Child Advocate and conducted by UMass Medical School, is a pilot program in Worcester County focused on promoting resilience in young children. The initiative provides trauma and resilience trainings and coaching for early childhood educators as well as parent workshops.”
Another example:
“The Department of Early Education and Care currently operates an Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation (ECHMH) program, which provides services to address and support the social-emotional development and behavioral health of children in early education and care programs.”
Here are some other local resources:
• the Boston Basics’ video about maximizing love and managing stress
• the state’s Strong Start online training programs for early educators that explore reopening and coping with COVID-19
• The Simple Interactions tool for connecting effectively with young children, and
• the Powerful Interactions approach to connecting to children
Massachusetts isn’t alone in this work. Other states are also expanding their early childhood mental health services, including North Carolina where the Department of Health and Human Services announced that it is “expanding the Hope4Healers Helpline to support staff who work in the state’s child care programs.”
As programs reopen, they will accomplish a great deal if they can prioritize the mental health needs of children, parents, educators, and administrators. For educators, self care will be important. As Aditi Subramaniam reminded us, find your calm and find ways to be gentle with yourself, because, “How you are is as important as what you do.”
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