The Massachusetts Association for Infant Mental Health (MassAIMH) is a non-profit interdisciplinary, professional statewide organization established to promote and support the optimal development of infants, very young children, and families through relationship-focused workforce development and advocacy efforts.
We recognize the vital importance of the foundational early years of development and that families need and deserve the support necessary in order to be able to nurture their children. Like you, we are providers and professionals serving young children and families and are dedicated to promoting healthy social and emotional development in the earliest stages and relationships of life.
Our Mission
- To promote family and infant and early childhood social and emotional well-being as foundational to development
- Enhance and link specialized training, research, policy, advocacy, and preventive and therapeutic intervention through collaboration across systems, disciplines and providers
Who We Are
What is Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health?
- The capability to experience, self-regulate, and adaptively express a wide variety of emotions: By the end of the first years of life, and with attuned and emotionally healthy caregiving, children will typically establish possibly the most important developmental milestone of their lives: the basic social and emotional capacity for trust in relationships with the people in their lives.
- And to use these skills in the service of strong, secure interpersonal relationships and strong learning readiness: This capacity carries the child forward for more likely success in future relationships, and supports the foundation of a child’s capacity for learning across all domains of development in that the health of early emotional experiences plays a crucial role in brain development.
Our Goal
Our goal is to integrate Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health (IECMH) competencies into state, local, and regional trainings that are designed to build a more skillful and confident workforce with experiences, materials and learning tools that support early relationship development.
We hope you will join us as MassAIMH members in our dedication and endeavors, bring your expertise and interests, and help us to continue our goal in the Commonwealth of enhancing emotional health for our youngest citizens and their families.
Endorsement from T. Berry Brazelton
“MassAIMH is playing a critical role in advancing the field of Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health and bringing together professionals with parents in the service of best outcomes for children.”
~ T. Berry Brazelton