The Mental Health Consultant is a contracted staff member working in partnership with the United Way Miami’s Early Head Start-Child Care Partnership (EHS-CCP) program to ensure that the EHS Grant Recipient adheres to the Head Start/Early Head Start Performance Standards, and state and local requirements regarding mental health services children, families, and staff.
Bilingual(English/Spanish)
Flexible Schedule
Principle Duties and Responsibilities:
- Commit to comply with Head Start Program Performance Standards (HSPPS) to support a program-wide culture that promotes mental health, social and emotional well-being, and overall health and safety through the following requirements:
- Coordinates supports for adult mental health and well-being, including engaging in nurturing and responsive relationships with families, engaging families in home visiting services, and promoting staff health and wellness, as described in § .
- Coordinates supports for positive learning environments for all children; supportive teacher practices; and strategies for supporting children with social, emotional, behavioral, or mental health concerns.
- Ensures mental health consultation services are available at a frequency of at least once a month.
- Implement program practices, which promote the healthy social and emotional development of all children, including children with disabilities. This includes when offering support to teachers, mental health consultant will utilize an early childhood mental health consultation model that incorporates the Pyramid Model, strengthens program and classroom practices, and is child and family centered, culturally appropriate and promotes positive methods of child guidance.
- Complete monthly observations for all children with an identified social-emotional concerns and provide staff consultation as-needed following these observations.
- Utilize multiple data systems to properly document all supports in a timely manner.
- Provide clinical guidance to families and staff regarding how to design and implement practices, which are responsive to the identified social, emotional, and behavioral mental health concerns of an individual child or group of children.
- Provide opportunities for families and staff to discuss strategies and plans, which will foster development for children with atypical development.
- Work in collaboration with program staff to identify children or families in need of additional support and locate appropriate providers for an individual child or family who would benefit from services. Ensure that all referrals, follow-up and ongoing efforts are documented appropriately.
Basic Requirements for Early Head Start mental health consultants
- Experienced with young children (prefer experience with the zero to three population)
- Knowledgeable about a variety of intervention strategies
- Knowledgeable about child development and family systems
- Observation and communication skills
- Organizational skills
- Understand a holistic, best practice approach to children’s mental health
- Able to integrate mental health activities and philosophies with other early childhood education components
- Understand low income families, cultural differences and group dynamics
- Sensitive to community’s attitudes towards mental health issues
- Knowledgeable about community resources
- Able to honor diverse perspectives and facilitate communication
- Able to travel county-wide
Pay: $20.00 - $22.00 per hour
Benefits:
Language:
Willingness to travel:
Work Location: In person
