0-5 Early Childhood Mental Health Initiative

The Child Center of NY is pleased to serve as the Queens borough-wide provider of the Early Childhood Mental Health Network, a Mayor’s Office of Community Mental Health initiative designed to provide mental health services and supports for families who have young children, ages 0–5, with mental health needs. Our bilingual and bicultural therapists utilize evidence-based, trauma-focused models of treatment, including play therapy and Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP), that have been proven to make a difference for this age group and give them the promising start we want for all our children.

Just as we need to ensure that children begin school academically ready to learn, we also need to ensure they begin life socially and emotionally ready to thrive. The Child Center can help with that piece of the puzzle. 

Many people wonder what mental health counseling for such young children entails. It mostly involves strengthening the parent-child bond in ways that make the child feel safe and secure and support their development. We work with pregnant people and children 0-5 years old, including newborns, with their parents or other primary caregivers. The goal is building secure and healthy relationships between parent and baby and preventing insecure attachment relationships that tend to result in mental health issues down the road. We help every family in our care to establish a mentally and emotionally healthy start.

Here are some things that we can provide children, parents, caregivers, and families who enter counseling with us:

• Individual and family therapy
• Parent groups
• Individual parent and child screenings
• Caregiver depression screening
• Other assessments and screenings
• Guidance in increasing positive interactions and communication between parent and child
• Assistance in developing social-emotional skills, building resiliency, improving self-esteem, and encouraging self-regulation
• The tools to help families handle the inevitable setbacks and challenges of life in a safe and constructive way, now and in the future

Eligibility

• Children ages 0-5 and their families
• Preference given to those enrolled in Head Start and Pre-K for All programs
• Medicaid and many third-party insurance plans are accepted. We work with families with and without insurance to ensure access for all and will find a financial solution based on each family’s individual financial situation.

We also offer perinatal, infant and ECMH consultation, an intervention program that pairs a mental health professional with schools, hospitals or other agencies that service perinatal to preschool populations. The consultant works with agencies to find ways to promote the social and emotional development of young children and works with families to improve relational health.

Services include:

Currently, we are piloting a new model of consultation in a hospital setting where we are supporting staff to help build healthy birth outcomes for new parents with trauma or perinatal mental health concerns.

• Staff and teacher training
• Consultations and coaching on incorporating social-emotional learning in the classroom
• Assistance in identifying and assessing children’s and families’ social and emotional needs
• Strategies for working with young children and their families
• A place where you can feel confident referring families who may be in need of mental health support