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 I recently joined 22 friends and colleagues (along with my 23 year old daughter), including physicians, a dentist, nurses, health specialists and volunteers as we established three field clinics offering rare health care to residents of remote villages in Haiti. Eighteen months after the devastating earthquake, the rate of progress remains painfully slow. Hundred of thousands of families still live in tent cities, clean and potable water is rare. However, throughout our visit there were signs of hope, most evident in the faces of those we met, who touched our lives with their gratitude and deep faith for the little we could offer. As a developmental psychologist and DIR/Floortime Clinician, I had great doubts that there was much I could offer to the overwhelming needs we witnessed. Yet, what I found were a host of emotional and developmental needs that welcomed the balm of human caring, informed by some awareness of the developmental, individual and relational needs each person possessed. One young girl, initially believed to be 7 years of age by our triage team, was actually 16. She had suffered from severe malnutrition and neglect, resulting in extreme growth retardation. Her case is an excellent example of the urgent need to adopt a comprehensive framework to promote infant mental health as well as prevent trauma, developmental disorders, and health consequences. This is not just about improving nutrition...
Young Micheline, had been brought to the clinic by her 18 year old neighbor because Micheline’s mother had taken her three younger children to our clinic the day before but did not bring Micheline because form birth she had rejected the child, the product of another father, and had neither adequately fed, clothed or educated the child. Her young, beautiful 18 year old neighbor felt such care and concern. 
It was overwhelming to witness both the challenges to growth that were posed by extreme poverty and largely preventable illnesses, as well as the amazing growth and resilience when parents were able to create that “spark” in a child’s eye and mind, and help them grow. The opportunities for our DIR/Floortime informed perspective to offer help and guidance to the people of Haiti are enormous. The need for our kindred-spirits to offer developmental guidance and support to the earliest challenges in social and emotional development are amazingly clear. Exploring collaborations with researchers on Trauma and Infant Mental Health is essential. One example is linking the DIR Model and the Functional Emotional Developmental Levels with the Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics (NMT) by Bruce Perry, MD, Ph.D.
It is my hope that in future years, we can assemble an organized effort with local planners to address the unmet needs of infants, young children and families.
 
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