Eight of our MPH students attended the 2019 CityMatCH Maternal and Child Health Leadership Conference, held September 23-25, in Providence, Rhode Island. What follows is a post from one of these attendees.
By Maddie Kim, BSPH
This year my cohort of CEMCH scholars and I attended the City MatCH conference held in Providence, Rhode Island. I was excited about this conference in particular for a number of reasons. The first reason being the great reviews I heard from past CEMCH scholars who attended previous years and the second reason being that this conference was solely attended by Maternal and Child Health professionals and students. Because my public health interests are specific, I find that it can be difficult to meet people who are in the field of infant and early childhood mental health, especially at larger conferences such as APHA. In addition, I felt that the topic of infant and early childhood mental health from a public health perspective was missing in my education. I was hoping that I would have the opportunity to learn more about the work being done in this field as well as meet the people who are leaders in this work.
My dreams were actualized when I saw the agenda and noticed multiple sessions were centered on not only mental health but infant and early childhood mental health. Arriving at the conference these sessions provided more to me than I thought. In one session I learned about male mental health and its impact on fatherhood and child development. In another I learned about initiatives and programs that are designed to connect children with more mental health resources and encourage healthy cognitive and social-emotional development. I was excited that these topics were being discussed in a public health space and was also really excited to see that initiatives were taking place on a state level to support infant and early childhood mental health. I am glad to know that I will be entering this field with such a strong backbone of supportive and amazing professionals who have started this important work.
Maddie Kim, BSPH is a second year MPH student graduating in December 2019 (!!!). Her interests include adverse childhood experiences, trauma-informed systems of care, and infant & early childhood mental health policy.
