You can join this esteemed group, too! Please, check out our website for more information.
More Information about CT-AIMH Endorsement
Language Matters
The mission of the Alliance for the Advancement of Infant Mental Health is to build and sustain a diverse workforce, informed by infant and early childhood mental health principles, that strengthen early relationships. We accomplish our mission through advancing social and economic justice and becoming an antiracist organization, supporting professional development and research, and engaging Associations for Infant Mental Health as partners.
As an organization we aim to continuously focus on organizational self-awareness and we desire to evolve, develop, and learn. One step we are taking in that direction is dismantling the use of the word “competence” related to the knowledge area cultural competence found within the Competency Guidelines and Endorsement for Culturally Sensitive, Relationship Focused Practice Promoting Infant & Early Childhood Mental Health. That term is no longer appropriate as it implies that there is an endpoint in which we will be competent. We understand that the work of diversity, equity, and inclusion requires an ongoing commitment to learning and self-reflection. Cultural competence has been replaced with cultural humility. Cultural humility requires less emphasis on knowledge and competency and places a greater emphasis on a life-long commitment to learning through self-evaluation and critique. Cultural humility addresses power imbalance, promotes interpersonal sensitivity, requires an attitude of openness, entails maintaining an interpersonal stance that is other-oriented, and necessitates learning from differences (Campinha-Bacote, 2019). Language is ever-evolving and we will continue to assess, reflect, and make changes as aligned with our core values.
You will notice that this change has been updated in the Endorsement Application System (EASy).
Campinha-Bacote, J. (2019). Cultural competemility: A paradigm shift in the cultural competence versus cultural humility debate – part I. Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 24(1), 1-10. http://dx.doi.org/10.
