My name is Tammy Livingston and I am an Infant Mental Health Consultant. What is an IMH Consultant, you might ask? Well, we are a contracted individual that strives to support and reflect with parent educators, lead parent educators and supervisors in programs that provide home visiting services to families with children prenatal to 3 years old.
The work that home visitors provide to families is both tough and rewarding and can take its toll on the worker in a variety of ways. An IMH Consultant is there to offer a space to process the work they do from a variety of self reflective stances including individually, in a group and as a part of a case consultation team.
I have been working with the Jumpstart team for nearly four years and in that time have witnessed the dedication and talent from each parent educator that has worked with the program. Each parent educator, reflective supervisor and supervisor has shown a strong commitment to the work and well-being of each parent and child they work with. They use the reflective supervision time to share their stories of struggle and success and to explore ways to better support families and themselves as they enhance and improve their relationship skills.
The Jumpstart team has shared a strong appreciation for the reflective process and the support that Easterseals has given them in accepting this type of reflective practice. As a result we believe that staff morale and commitment has increased as well as staff and family retention. I am privileged and proud to be a part of the Easterseals Jumpstart team!
