I have been really busy over the last few weeks going from community group to community group talking about the mental health of babies. Suddenly, it seems as if the word has got out that babies really do have an emotional life and parents want to know about it.
When I finished my Masters’ degree in Infant Mental Health four years ago, there wasn’t a nursing job to be found that required the qualification of Infant Mental Health. Now, it seems that things are changing fast and this mental health nursing specialty is finally coming in from the cold. Positions are appearing more and more frequently, especially with the new state policy directions in perinatal mental health.
So, what is Infant Mental Health?
Infant Mental Health is defined as “the healthy social and emotional development of a child from birth to three years; and the growing field of research and practice devoted to the prevention of mental health problems and the treatment of mental health problems of very young children in the context of their families”.
Infant Mental Health is a relatively new area of study and clinical practice, but a very rewarding one. It adds a whole new dimension to working with infants, children and their parents because the work focuses on enhancing parent-child relationships. The focus on the parent-child relationship is because these relationships are so important for the healthy social and emotional development of infants and children. Relationships are the single most important aspect of our human-ness. We all need good relationships to remain healthy and productive and this starts right from infancy.
We once believed that babies were just little, blank slates and it didn’t matter what we did to them because they wouldn’t remember it later in life. We now know that this is absolutley wrong. What we now know is that the earliest experiences of infancy form the foundation for later emotional well-being, cognitive functioning, creativity, social responsibility and intimate relationships. Good infant mental health provides the foundation for mental health across the lifespan because we now know that what happens in the first 3 years of life can have a profound effect on how people manage relationships for the rest of their lives and how they behave and function in our wider society.
Working in this this area enables me to feel as if I am helping to lay solid and healthy foundations for our future society. It’s also really rewarding because the majority of parents want to do the best they can for their children, and so when you give them ways to do that, they usually try as hard as they can to make their relationships with their children better and healthier. This makes the nursing work positive and fulfilling.
For anyone working with infants and children I thoroughly recommend doing a graduate course in Infant Mental Health because it will tie all your knowledge and skill together and enable you to practice more holistically.
For more information on Infant Mental Health courses go to the NSW Institute of Psychiatry www.nswiop.nsw.edu.au
This is so interesting Fran! I have to say I agree with everything you said and I am experiencing it first hand with my 2 year old. We are concerned that she has an anxiety issue, there are a whole lot of things that tell me there is more to it than separation anxiety which is the norm for this age. Hmmmm maybe I should talk to you or someone else in my area. Keep up the good work!! It is soo important that our babies grow up mentally stable and learn to deal with their feelings in a positive way, and us as parents learn the tools to teach our little angels how to deal with their emotions and increase their EQ.
I’ve worked in this field for nearly 6 years and I absolutely love it. We connect with the mothers during pregnancy and work with them until the infant’s first birthday. These mothers have significant and complex vulnerabilities that will impact on their ability to parent (eg mental health issues, domestic violence, drug and alcohol issues, homelessness, teenage mums with limited resources etc).
The purpose of doing this work is, as mentioned above, to facilitate the positive development of the parent-infant relationship that will then assist in promote a healthy attachment relationship and psychosocial wellbeing for the infant. We also now know that this relationship begins even before birth.