Vision

To improve outcomes across the lifespan, we translate and promote the science of early mental health into practice with families during pregnancy, infancy and early childhood.

Vision

• Healthy minds from the beginning.

• Sharing knowledge to build capacity and promote scientific inquiry.
• Leadership through advocacy, resource development, and informing promising practices.
• Understanding guided by science and the experience and wisdom of others.
• Equity, diversity and inclusivity as cornerstones for building upon community strengths.
• Relationships and collaboration as the foundation for all that we do.

• Designing and running innovative educational opportunities for service providers from different disciplines.
• Offering a Ontario College Graduate Certificate  in Infant and Early Child Mental Health in collaboration with Seneca College
• Providing information on infant development, research, interventions, and resources for infants and families. 
• Developing videos and other teaching materials and information on infant development and parent-child relationships. 
• Providing web-based information on infant mental health and the activities of IMHP. 
• Establishing and supporting creative, cross-sectoral networks. 
• Facilitating initiatives that raise awareness of gaps in services, and advocating for change in policy, funding and service delivery. 
• Serving as a resource for information on programs and resources for infant and their families.

1. The first three years of life have a unique and formative impact on development, relationships and functioning throughout life.
2. Service providers require a specific knowledge and skill base to provide care in the area of infant and early childhood mental health (i.e. prenatal to 60 months/ 5 years.)
3. Many adverse outcomes can be prevented when parents and other caregivers are provided with support that enables them to be optimally responsive to their infants and young children.
4. As families have the central role in the lives of their children, it is essential to collaborate with families, to build on their strengths and to reduce their risks.
5. Services must be sensitive to the diverse needs and coping styles of families from varying cultural and socio-economic backgrounds and to infants and parents who have diverse health and developmental needs.