Visit the Michigan Association of Infant Mental Health (MI-AIMH) website: www.mi-aimh.org

To become a member of MI-AIMH, register here:  www.my.mi-aimh.org

The mission of MI-AIMH is to promote and support nurturing relationships for all infants.

MI-AIMH believes that each infant needs to be nurtured and protected by one or more consistent and stimulating caregivers who enjoy a permanent and special relationship with the baby.  This relationship is essential for optimal social, emotional and cognitive growth.

MI-AIMH also believes that the failure to provide and maintain nurturing relationships, at least one, during infancy may result in significant damage to the individual and to society.

Therefore, MI-AIMH supports the following positions:

• Early intervention is an essential social policy, important from both a fiscal and a moral point of view.
• Early intervention can be effective for the individual infant only if offered in a manner that promotes and supports the infant-caregiver relationship as both the primary source of strength and growth.
• Early intervention is effective only when a family’s culture is respected and approached as a strength and support.

Support, training and advocacy for early intervention must become a cooperative venture that bridges traditional cultural, disciplinary, administrative and political boundaries.