World image is courtesy of Ten Thousand Villages.
The Early Childhood and Family Services (ECFS) program offers services to the early childhood population (0-6) and their caregivers. Once a referral is received by The Hume Center, the client is matched with an individual clinician based on language specialties and enrolled in therapy modalities depending upon treatment plan. The goals and aspirations of our Early Childhood program are to provide Prevention, Intervention, and Treatment to children and their families who are at risk or in the throes of social, emotional, behavioral or developmental difficulties. We believe that if these difficulties are addressed early, with support and compassion, suffering can be minimized in later life and there can be progress toward successful development and positive family relationships.
Common Issues We Address Include:
Assessment
What families should expect upon accessing our services is a comprehensive interview from a clinician about the history of the presenting difficulty, child development, and family. Additionally, any questions or concerns the caregiver(s) has will be elicited. We also utilize screening measurements around socio-emotional development, child development, and any exposure to trauma. Clinician will outline strengths of the child and family before beginning treatment. This generally occurs over 3-5 meetings, which includes 2-3 sessions with only the caregiver (s).
Mental Health Consultation
We provide consultation services to parents both with the goal of working with them and their child, as well as without the child present in adjunct meetings. We provide consultation services to other providers, such as pediatricians, occupational therapists, speech and language specialists, and child care providers with the goal to enhance their work objectives in relation to a client and/ or strengthen their program delivery.
Parent-Child Diadic Therapy
We take a family-centered, strength-based approach in working with children 0-6 and their caregiver (s) with the goal of healthy developmental progress of the child. What this means is the primary caregiver (s) is central to the work. We prefer to do this work in the environment that is most comfortable for the family, whether that be at our office, their home, or a community location such as a Preschool. Our team includes psychologists and mental health specialists, and we work closely with pediatricians, occupational therapists, speech and language specialists, and child care providers in an effort to best serve the child and family needs. We believe that close collaboration with those in the child and family’s life assists the child and family in a successful outcome.
Staff
This program is staffed by highly trained clinicians. The Hume Center is a recognized internship site and services are provided by trainees (Practicum students, Docotoral Interns and Post-Docotoral fellows) who are supervised by licensed clinicians.
History of This Program
The ECFS program seeds were planted at The Hume Center in 2004 through our prevention ervices for CalWORKs recipients. Our professionals were prompted to gain specializations in Early Childhood mental health. Having served families and individuals in the CalWORKs system and through our Outpatient program, it became apparent that when caregivers were struggling with issues of unemployment, poverty, and mental health, their children would inevitably be affected in some way. Through partnership with ACBHCS, First5, and ECC in 2010, The Hume Center has developed a specialty 0-6 program to focus on infants and toddlers in the context of their families.