Training Future School and Clinical Psychology Leaders in Consultation for Early Childhood Education Settings

ABSTRACT This paper describes how training school and clinical psychology graduate students in early childhood mental health consultation (ECMHC) has the potential to fill gaps in the ECMHC workforce, enhance the capacity of early care and education (ECE) providers to effectively support the mental health needs of children and families, and help ECE programs provide equitable services to children and families. We first present the need for explicit ECMHC training in school and clinical psychology doctoral programs, and how didactic coursework and practica could align with national competencies for high-quality ECMHC. We then illustrate how graduate programs might aspire to greater impact by 1) shifting to promotion and prevention, systems- and organizational-based practice orientations, and equity and cultural competence principles; and 2) leveraging ECE programming to infuse ECMHC practice. We conclude with a call to action for graduate programs to address this need for mental health professionals with specialized ECMHC competencies.