Thank you for visiting the Kansas Association for Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Website. We are striving to make this website a vital resource for individuals interested in infant and family mental health topics and issues in our state. Please browse the pages of our website and let us know what you think of our site and what we can do to improve.

The Kansas Association for Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health is engaged in many activities of importance to the infant mental health community in Kansas. High on the list is our Infant Mental Health Endorsement program, where KAIMH members attain this designation after demonstrating their education, work history and professional development. Currently, more than two dozen Kansas professionals have applied to attain their Infant Mental Health Endorsement. In addition, ten state leaders have already achieved this national recognition.

KAIMH is also proud to be a participant in the Kansas Early Learning Collaborative. The "KELC" is a collaboration of six statewide organizations that are working together to bring a seamless array of early childhood services centered in 12 Kansas counties. The KELC is supported by a grant from the Kansas Children's Cabinet. Along with offering our Endorsement program, the KELC grant permits KAIMH to contract to provide mental health consultation services.

In April, KAIMH hosted a highly successful Spring Conference in Salina, attended by more than 100 Kansans interested in early childhood mental health issues. On a quarterly basis, KAIMH coordinates the Kansas Early Childhood Mental Health Council, which promotes the enactment of the Kansas Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Strategic Plan. In 2009, KAIMH has also been actively involved in encouraging its members to advocate for issues regarding importance to social and emotional development of infants and young children, and has plans for a number of education forums in the remaining months of the year.

If you are interested in socia/emotional development of young children and relationship-based work with families, we invite you to consider being a KAIMH member. We are pleased about all we have done, but even more excited about the challenges before us. We invite you to take part in the important work of our association.

Sincerely,

Shelley Mayse, Infant Mental Health Mentor

2009 KAIMH President