LEWISTON – The Maine Association for Infant Mental Health Inc. will hold its 21st annual conference, “Responding to Children and Families Impacted by Trauma,” on Friday, May 9, at the Ramada Conference Center.

The conference will feature Patricia Van Horn, PhD, a licensed clinical psychologist in California, associate clinical professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California San Francisco, and associate director of the UCSF Child Trauma Research Project at San Francisco General Hospital.

Her research is with children under 6 who have witnessed domestic violence, investigating the effects of witnessing violence on the functioning of the children, as well as the effectiveness of a relationship-based model for treating the children and their mothers She is co-author of several books.

Van Horn will address the impact of trauma on early childhood development. The focus will be on understanding the ways in which trauma challenges young children’s caregiving environments. She will present interventions across disciplines that lessen the impact of trauma and restore caregivers to their role as the child’s protector and guide.

There will be a panel of Maine service providers, including a home visitor, pediatrician, childcare provider and child protective worker. Each will share an experience of trauma from their practice to which Van Horn will respond.

For more information, contact the association at 375-8184 or debraNJ@aol.com. For information about the association, go to www.infantmentalhealth.org. Advance registration is required.