In June 2021, The five A Better Start partnerships came together to provide a free webinar on infant mental health support.
In June 2021, The five A Better Start partnerships came together to provide a free webinar on infant mental health support. The event marked Infant Mental Health Awareness Week 2021.
The webinar explored a simple question: Is there a ‘baby blind spot’ when it comes to policy and practice on child mental health?
The simple fact of the matter is that while children’s mental health has been recognised as an important issue, the focus is definitely on older children and young people: pregnant women, babies and toddlers are often overlooked. The five A Better Start areas are looking to overcome this within their local communities.
A range of different initiatives is evolving within the five partnership areas, including:
- A community-based approach to improving infant mental health in Blackpool
- A service in Lambeth that is mindful of bringing the unborn baby into view
- A dedicated pathway to providing support for young minds in Bradford
- Supporting positive paternal mental health in improved emotional outcomes for infants in Nottingham
- Together with baby – a focus on the parent-infant relationship in mental health services in Southend
You can find presentations about these pieces of work at the top of the page and a recording of the webinar is available at: https://youtu.be/B29I51svBq8