Greetings FAIMH family! Welcome to the Spring 2019 edition of our Florida Association for Infant Mental Health Newsletter. As always, there is much to highlight in our shared work for babies and their families.
Recently, we were reminded by the 2019 State of Babies report that Florida has a lot of growing to do: if you’re not familiar with this report, please review the findings here: https://stateofbabies.org/data/#/Florida. The State of Babies report makes it clear that Florida is mostly "getting started" in helping our youngest and most vulnerable citizens realize their full potential. We have work to do.
The Board of Directors of FAIMH sees you--our membership--as change agents. As we build a stronger infant mental health community in Florida, the needs of babies and their families will be recognized. Together, we can change the State of Babies in Florida!
The centerpiece of our collective professional development work is the Florida Infant Mental Health Endorsement (FIMH-E®). I'm happy to report ongoing progress in rolling out FIMH-E®. FAIMH's Endorsement Workgroup, a small but mighty team that interfaces directly with the FAIMH Board of Directors, has been steadily guiding our Endorsement efforts. In the last few months, almost two dozen infant mental health professionals from around Florida have led the way by going through our endorsement process. I want to personally thank our tireless Endorsement Workgroup as well as those professionals who stepped up to be endorsed for all they’re doing to advance infant mental health in Florida. The names of these leaders appear below in our Member's Highlight section. You can find out more about Endorsement here: https://www.faimh.org/endorsement.
The efforts of our Endorsement team remind me that we are part of an incredible community of professionals. In October of last year, we had our FIMH-E® kickoff meeting in St. Petersburg. In the back of the room was one of the great leaders in our Florida mental health community. Herb Quay, aged 90, was there to be with us at our kickoff! I am sad to report that Herb passed away in March of this year; if you didn’t know Herb, you probably know his wife of 34 years, Anne Hogan, who was on the Board of Directors of FAIMH (as our Past President) when we had the kickoff.
Herb was truly a man of letters--an accomplished academic psychologist whose legacy of training professionals in Florida is unrivaled. For more on Herb's incredible career, please see: https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/herald/obituary.aspx?n=herbert-c-quay&pid=191800206) ... We will miss Herb greatly and hold Anne in our collective hearts.