Tennessee Endorsement® Registry
The AIMHiTN Endorsement for Culturally Sensitive, Relationship-focused Practice Promoting Infant Mental Health (IMH-E®) is intended to recognize experiences that lead to competency in the infant and family field. It does not replace licensure or certification but instead is meant as evidence of specialization in the field. The IMH-E® is cross-sector and multidisciplinary including professionals from child and/or human development, education, nursing, pediatrics, psychiatry, psychology, public health, social work, and others. Endorsement® indicates an individual’s efforts to specialize in the promotion/practice of infant and early childhood mental health within his/her own discipline.
Those who have earned Endorsement® have demonstrated that the individual has completed specialized education, work, in-service training, and reflective supervision/consultation experiences (as defined in Endorsement® criteria) that have led to competency in the promotion and/or practice of infant and early childhood mental health. Endorsement® does not guarantee the ability to practice as a mental health professional, although many who have earned Endorsement® are licensed, mental health professionals.
Endorsement involves a standardized process to determine that a professional has accumulated specialized experiences in the infant and early childhood field and has signed a Code of Ethics. All applicants receive a copy of the Code of Ethics. An applicant’s experiences are documented by the submission of an application that details competency-based training, specialized work experiences, and for most, reflective supervision/consultation (RSC) experiences. The application also includes official transcripts and three reference ratings. Endorsees as Infant Mental Health Specialists and Infant Mental Health Mentor have passed an exam that includes measures of theoretical knowledge, direct service skills, and their capacity to apply these principles into practice. This exam is scored by a team of two reviewers who are blind to the identity of the examinee.
To maintain Endorsement also requires ongoing training and, in the cases of Infant Family Specialist, Infant Mental Health Specialist, and Infant Health Mentor-Clinical, ongoing RSC. Endorsees are also required to re-commit to upholding the Code of Ethics annually. Beginning in January of 2022, this commitment includes signing an attestation that the endorsee has not been sanctioned by a licensing board.
Endorsement is not a professional license or a certificate. AIMH Endorsement cannot guarantee the quality of service of any endorsed professional. AIMH Endorsement does not include a process by which complaints or concerns regarding ethics can be filed. If AIMH becomes aware of possible ethics violations by an endorsed professional, complainants are encouraged to, when applicable, contact the individual's professional licensing board. The AIMH Endorsement does not offer to monitor for ethics violations, however, if AIMH learns that an endorsed professional has been sanctioned by a licensing board, the individual’s name is moved to the Inactive Endorsement Registry. Those professionals will follow the policy [link here] for reactivation to the Active Endorsement Registry once the licensing board’s sanctions have been lifted.