DS_2023GAAIM Conference_Agenda

Each year, an average of 50 women give birth in Georgia prisons. Motherhood Beyond Bars, a nonprofit organization, ensures a healthy start for infants born to incarcerated women by providing a network of comprehensive support for mothers and caregivers. MBB is also conducting research on the impacts of incarceration on infants and the significant challenges of family reunification when the mother is incarcerated. This workshop will highlight the complexities of birth and child well being within the carceral system and opportunities to support family unity within the judicial and child welfare systems.

Through this presentation, the birth to five workforce will receive an overview of infant and early childhood mental health (IECMH) and learn how to promote IECMH in the caregiver-child relationship in their practice, services, and supports.

This presentation explores the foundations of the mental health of young children birth to five. We will discuss how early childhood experiences and first relationships shape children as they develop and grow. Particularly, we will look at how the brain develops, organizes, and adapts in the first years of life in the context of a child’s caregiving environment and how it is connected to capacities for emotion regulation. We will highlight the impact of adverse childhood experiences, trauma, and toxic stress in development. Participants will be exposed to several evidence-base interventions, tangible strategies, and resources that can be used to support families and young children. The overall goal is for participants to gain a basic understanding of the essential building blocks for infant and early childhood mental health and leave with greater understanding of how that impacts emotion and behavior regulation as children develop.

This workshop will give a thorough introduction for those new to reflective alliances and a brief, comprehensive overview for those who are familiar with but want to learn more. The benefits of RSC, useful RS tools, and ways to incorporate reflective supervision/consultation into your organization and practice will be discussed. Participants will acquire helpful tools for use in developing an RSC program.

This presentation will review IECMH endorsements paths, categories and requirements for those working with or on behalf of infants, toddlers, young children and their families.

Participants will engage in thoughtful discussion around the policy needs of young children and their families that address social and emotional well-being.

This presentation will provide a brief overview of Infant-Toddler Court Programs and their importance in the child welfare system. This session will also include an introduction to the Safe Babies Approach and provide details of Georgia’s implementation plan for the Infant Toddler Court Program.

In this presentation, we will give an overview of what perinatal mental health is, what perinatal mood and anxiety disorders are, how they are treated, and how community providers can screen for them.

Join this session to learn more about the Georgia Council for Recovery (GC4R) and its programs, such as Maternal Peer Support (MPS) and Building Communities of Recovery (BCOR). This session will shed light on the importance of Peer Recovery Support Services and explain how separation impacts both mother and baby, the need for multiple pathways to recovery, and the importance of using a trauma-informed approach when working with families affected by substance use disorder and mental health challenges.

This training is designed to provide managers, front-line workers, and volunteers with knowledge to develop and deliver services that will effectively engage fathers. Mainstream human service and family strengthening programs are typically targeted to mothers, and as such, their content and delivery are often not sufficiently responsive to fathers’ specific experiences and needs.

This session will be packed with information, strategies, and resources to promote young children’s resilience- the ability to navigate life’s ups and downs. From a stance of primary prevention, we will discuss key building blocks that support resilience and emotional wellness in all young children. We will provide simple, effective strategies that support young children’s ability to identify, express, and cope with big feelings. This will be an interactive presentation where attendees will be invited to share experiences and participate in brief activities. We will also highlight several free emotional wellness resources available on the Strong4Life webpage.

Partnerships between child welfare and early intervention systems increase access and expand the service array for young children in foster care and their caregivers. Aligning these systems and coordinating services are crucial to effective, efficient, and timely service delivery. These efforts promote placement stability, improve well-being outcomes, and provide each child with a pathway to thrive. This workshop will offer participants an overview of the current early intervention structure, outline challenges, and identify new opportunities for child welfare and early intervention programs to build, support, and maintain collaborative relationships across systems to better support young children in foster care.

In this workshop, Dr. Cissé will provide a brief description of her research where she explored mothers’ perceived competence to influence the mental health of their infants, social workers’ ability to understand the role mothers play in the development of their child’s mental health, and its relevance for the community. Dr. Cissé will share her research study design, results, and support a guided discussion among attendees.

This presentation explores attachment relationships in the context of early learning and care. We will explore what attachment looks like in early learning and classroom settings, current research on teacher-student well-being, and how to promote secure attachment relationships between early childhood professionals and young children within early care centers. An overview of the COS Classroom model will be provided and a case study with Head Start classrooms will be explored with participants. Participants will have the opportunity to consider applications in their local context and resources needed.