OCYI’s Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Education and Awareness (IECMH-EA) Task Group brings together early years service providers from across Ottawa to increase awareness of infant and early childhood mental health and offer strategies for fostering mental health in early childhood.
Working together for a decade, this group developed the Pause. Moments Matter in the Life of a Child campaign to raise awareness about the importance of infant and early childhood mental health. A series of posters and tip sheets were created to support the community in taking action to promote and protect early mental health where we live, work and play.
As a growth of the Moments Matter campaign, the IECMH-EA Task Group recently completed a series of six informational videos, available in French and English. These videos share key messages on six foundational topics associated with early mental health plus tips about supporting mental health for infants and young children.
Featuring OCYI partner organizations, these short videos also encompass what community partners contribute to the realm of children’s mental health as well as applicable examples. These videos were a community effort to share expertise from the community with others so that Ottawa’s youngest residents can be on a path to grow up great. They will be valuable to educate program staff and to introduce these topics to families during programming.
Planned, filmed, and produced by two students from Algonquin College’s Bachelor of Early Learning and Community Development during a placement with OCYI, the videos are now available to be viewed and shared by community partners on OCYI’s YouTube page, https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5EebFsfaIbNUPwyI1X5mVodtoBZ5wbbw.
For accompanying posters and tip sheets for both families and professionals, visit www.iecmh.ca.
This story is part of the May 2024 Ovation. This story is also available in French.