|
In December, we hosted “Nurture Connection Presents: ERH Research, Principles, and Perspectives,” a webinar presenting key takeaways and reflections from The Burke Foundation’s “Early Relational Health: A Review of Research, Principles, and Perspectives” report by early childhood researchers Junlei Li, PhD, and Thelma Ramirez of the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Below you will find additional reflections on the “ERH Principles” report from across four different perspectives and fields Nurture Connection brings together in our network of networks.
Brenda Blasingame, MA – Principal and Founder at Vav Amani Consulting LLC and Nurture Connection Core Planning Team member
"The principles and applications are explicitly family- and community-focused in an unapologetic manner from beginning to end."
It is rare to read a report with a title that leaves me feeling seen, acknowledged, and respected. The principles and applications are explicitly family- and community-focused in an unapologetic manner from beginning to end. Calling out the need for a balance between evidence-based interventions and community-based strategies is critically important to work on Early Relational Health (as well as the field of early childhood). To achieve what we want, we must stay true to principles and practices that “adapt to and meet the diverse needs of families and communities.” The importance in our field of moving from a focus on adversity, risk, and deficits to “protective supports and ecological solutions” and the intentional promotion of positive childhood experiences is where we need to be focusing our attention and intention. Our work is to create the context and conditions for these things to occur if we are to succeed in achieving equitable outcomes for children, families, and communities.
Andrew Garner, MD, PhD, FAAP – Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at Case Western Reserve University and Nurture Connection ERH National Network member
"Anyone who works with small children and their families will find something in this report that resonates deeply with what they do and why they do it."
This report is clear, comprehensive, and synergistic. It integrates the strengths of numerous other frames into this “new” rubric that we are calling ERH. For example, it draws on the strengths of cutting-edge science, conventional wisdom, recent calls for equity, the need to be strengths-based, and a practical focus on the economic return on investment. Anyone who works with small children and their families will find something in this report that resonates deeply with what they do and why they do it. As a pediatrician, I think this report is both liberating and disorienting. Most pediatricians know in their hearts that ERH is absolutely foundational to all that they do every day. Yet every day they are actively discouraged from embracing these strength-based principles by a healthcare system that is squarely deficits-based. There is little room — or reimbursement — for strengths-based efforts like promoting ERH, listening with compassion, or employing empathic curiosity when pediatric care is embedded in a deficits-based system like healthcare. The cognitive dissonance between what pediatricians know in their hearts and actually do to keep the lights on is simply disorientating.
Kaitlin Mulcahy, PhD – Director, Center for Autism and Early Childhood Mental Health at Montclair State University and Nurture Connection ERH National Network member
"This report can help increase the awareness, understanding, and financial commitment necessary to continue creating a community of care for all of our families at the earliest moments of family formation."
My first reaction to the “ERH Principles” report was one of astounding gratitude. I found the amount of thought, scholarship, and care that has gone into the emergence of the movement of Early Relational Health to be beautifully distilled, communicated, and explained. The piece that resonated with me the most was the visual of the braiding of the principles. So often, we learn principles as building blocks or parallel points. It was refreshing to see the image of a braid depicting the integration of principles, reminding us to keep them all connected. The report’s description of Early Relational Health as a framework that allows for flexibility and openness for new ideas to flow into the framework is also unique and important. Finally, the report clearly communicated what we often say in New Jersey — that early relational health is everyone’s business. To this mantra, we have recently added: “…and should also be in everyone’s budgets!” This report can help increase the awareness, understanding, and financial commitment necessary to continue creating a community of care for all of our families at the earliest moments of family formation.
Hoda Shawky, MSN, CPNP, PMHS, IBCLC – Pediatric Nurse Practioner, Doula, Consultant, and Nurture Connection ERH National Network member
"The report consistently and so beautifully centers human relationships."
So many concepts related to either community, parent, and/or infant/early childhood well-being have gained popularity in the past few years. What this report has done is bring the concepts all together into a cohesive story of how all of these ideas are related. Perhaps most importantly, it does so using a strengths-based, rather than a problem-focused, lens. The report consistently and so beautifully centers human relationships. That is why I love the principles, which bring together these truths based on research and community wisdom. To me, each principle is a powerful statement that we will stand behind each of these beliefs when we think about how we are supporting families and communities in the early years. Whether it is working with families, working with stakeholders on addressing early childhood systems issues, or mentoring the next generation of professionals, this report confirms for me that in order for systems work (whether early childhood or health) to succeed, we must have the courage to let our relationships lead and allow our hearts to follow.
| 
