Early Childhood Mental Health and Consultation

The social, emotional, and behavioral well-being of children under five years and their families.

Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation (ECMH-C)

Harbor’s ECMH-C program helps caregivers cope with young children’s challenging behavior. ECMH consultants collaborate with administrators, staff, family members, and caregivers who are directly involved with the children in group care and early education settings.

You might consider requesting Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation if…

• your child is at risk of expulsion from preschool or care center
• your child has hard-to-manage, challenging behaviors
• your child has social, emotional, and physical development concerns

Individual/Family Consultation

Child/Family centered consultation services entail an Early Childhood Consultant observing your infant, toddler, or preschooler’s behavior within a childcare or preschool setting. Consultants will develop strategies with parents and early care and education staff to help the child be successful in school. There is no fee for this service. Consultants do not conduct diagnosis, but work to help reduce or eliminate social, emotional, and behavioral concerns.

Parent Education Workshops

Parent workshops are available to early care and education centers as well as community groups and organizations in Lucas County. A variety of topics on children’s social and emotional development are available.

Parents learn to:

• Play successfully with their child
• Use effective praise and encouragement
• Use creative problem solving skills
• Set effective limits
• Prevent abuse
• Increase self-esteem

Programmatic Consultation

Programmatic Consultation focuses on improving the overall quality of the program or assisting the program to solve a specific issue that affects more than one child, staff member, and/or family. This type of consultation is usually provided to Early Care and Education (ECE) program administrators and staff, and is intended to have a more widespread impact.

Programmatic Consultation trains teachers on practices that promote social and emotional well-being, school readiness skills and teachers’ capacity to manage challenging behaviors within the classroom. Centers collaborate with the consultants throughout the year and provide services weekly.

Step Up To Quality

Helps communities improve their Step up Quality ratings for childcare learning and developmental programs. Step Up To Quality is a five-star quality rating and improvement system administered by the Ohio Department of Education and the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services that improves learning and development outcomes for children.

Early Childhood Mental Health (ECMH)

ECMH helps young children experience, regulate and express emotions, form close secure relationships, explore the environment and learn.

Counseling

• Abuse or Neglect
• Substance Use
  
• Stress or Anxiety
  
• Medication Management
  
• Anger
  
• Depression
  
• Impulse Control
  
• Trauma
  
• Oppositional Defiant

Linkage to community resources and community based therapy will help you coordinate physical, mental health and social service needs.

Psychological Testing is often recommended to better understand what is affecting the child's behavior and emotions. Psychological testing can assess for mood problems such as anxiety and depression, and assess for cognitive problems and developmental delays.

Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) is an effective treatment backed by 40 years of research that addresses behavior problems by increasing a child's social skills and cooperation, and improves the parent-child relationship. PCIT involves the therapist providing live-coaching to the caregiver through an earpiece as they interact and play with their child. The therapist provides real-time feedback and coaching on specific play-therapy and discipline techniques.

Trauma Focused-Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a short-term treatment that addresses the unique needs of children with PTSD symptoms, depression, behavior problems, and other difficulties related to traumatic life experiences. For children, many experiences can be traumatic, including moving to a new home, separation from parents, witnessing or hearing violence, divorce, loss of a loved one, physical injuries and abuse.

Developmental & Behavioral Services is a comprehensive approach to the diagnosis of children with a variety of developmental and behavioral concerns.

• ADHD
• Autism
• Intellectual Disability
• Chromosomal Abnormalities
• Language Disorders
• Fetal Alcohol Concerns
• Not meeting developmental milestones (birth - age 5)

Locations

22nd Street Location

123 North 22nd Street
Toledo, Ohio, 43604

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