Mental Health Specialist

POSITION TITLE

Mental Health Specialist

Exempt, FT

5

Youth & Family Potential

Early Head Start & Head Start & PFAE

Mental Health Manager of Center Based Programs

$60,000-$65,000 (depending on experience)

Provides infant/early childhood mental health consultation to early childhood education Early Head Start, Head Start. Preschool for All Expansion partner sites; provides observation, consultation, training & technical assistance to build capacity of caregivers to respond to the social emotional and mental health needs of young children and families.

Head Start and PFAE Education and Family Services Team, Children’s Mental Health Team, Child Care Partner Staff.

• Builds and fosters relationships with childcare providers/teachers to provide consistent, ongoing, reflective consultation during monthly (at minimum) site visits.
• Promotes reflection, critical thinking, & trauma informed and developmentally appropriate practices
• Provides supports for effective classroom management and positive learning environments; social emotional learning; and strategies for supporting children with challenging behaviors and other mental health concerns.
• Provides general classroom observations with follow-up written recommendations and guidance for effective classroom management and positive learning environments
• Works with teachers, teacher coaches, and center directors to identify children who may have social emotional concerns.
• As recommended or requested, provides individual child observations and partners with providers/staff and parents/caregivers to develop individualized child support plans with recommendations for strategies to address challenging behaviors and social emotional needs of young children;
• Develop a system to track referrals and services provided and monitor the implementation of a follow-up plan to meet any needs associated with social emotional concerns; helps staff reflect on the implementation of plans.
• In collaboration with Developmental Specialists, supports teachers with understanding and implementation of classroom accommodations and strategies related to Individual Family Service Plans (IFSP) and Individual Education Plans (IEP)
• Works with partner child care providers and staff to implement policies, plans, and procedures to ensure compliance with program performance standards related to mental health.
• Consult with site directors in developing plans to address teacher/staff wellbeing.
• Ensure proper documentation and tracking of key deliverables, referrals, and services provided
• Build community relationships/partnerships to facilitate access to additional community and mental health resources and services as needed
• Participate in local early childhood community collaboration meetings
• Participate in a Reflective Learning Group for Infant/Early Childhood Mental Health Consultants in Illinois
• Collaborate with Head Start Education Team to assess and respond to classroom/teacher needs through consultation, technical assistance, and/or training.
• Collaborate with Head Start Family Services team to assess and respond to family/parent needs of children in the Head Start Program through parent consultation, technical assistance, and/or parent trainings.
• Work collaboratively across YWCA teams to support mental health related workshops, staff training, etc.
• Function as member of the children's mental health team to ensure quality and alignment across YWCA's early childhood programming and collaborate to further develop team support and programming.

• Mission Driven
  – demonstrates passion for supporting systems/programs/families with advancing equitable and inclusive policies/practices that serve and empower children, families, and early childhood educators.
• Self-aware
  – including awareness of one’s own strengths and areas for growth; awareness of and commitment to address biases; ability to identify and appropriately manage emotional responses to the work.
• Reflective
  – values a reflective approach to work and can create reflective opportunities for others.
• Develops and motivates others
  – has a passion for supporting the…