Who we are
Infant Mental Health Promotion (IMP) is a coalition of professional representatives from service agencies dedicated to promoting optimal outcomes for infants (prenatal to 36 months) in collaboration with families and other caregivers.
Mission
To develop and support best practices for enhancing infant mental health through education, dissemination of information, networking, and advocacy.
Activities
- Designing and running innovative workshops for service providers from different disciplines.
- Offering a university-based certificate program in infant mental health in collaboration with York University.
- Publishing a quarterly newsletter, IMPrint, that provides information on infant development, research, interventions, and resources for infants and their families.
- Developing videotapes 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 IMP.
- 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
Values & Beliefs
The first three years of life have a unique and formative impact on development, relationships and functioning throughout life.
Service providers require a specific knowledge and skill base to provide care in the area of infant mental health (i.e. prenatal to 36 months.)
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.
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.
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.