What is Infant Mental Health?
Infant mental health relates to how infants experience the world around them. It is an infant’s ‘capacity to experience, regulate, and express emotions, form close and secure relationships, explore the environment and learn’[i]. Unlike older children and adults, infants are unable to regulate their emotions on their own and need responsive caregivers to help, as well as to learn skills to regulate their emotions for themselves as they develop and grow.
How Can Primary Care Professionals Support Infants’ Mental Health?
You don’t need to be a mental health specialist to play a role in supporting the positive mental health of infants. GPs, nurses and allied health professionals who work with families can apply the following principles in their work:
‘Whole-child’ approach: Consider infants’ mental health within broader social and environmental contexts. Be curious about the strengths and vulnerabilities of their family, community and physical environment
Strengths-based approach: Build confidence and competence in families by having conversations with caregivers about what they and their family are doing well, rather than just where they are struggling. This includes helping caregivers identify where they can bring strengths from one part of their life into their relationship with their infant
Focus on relationships: Consult caregivers about the quality of their relationships with their infants and observe their interactions. Offer support where necessary.
Resilience building: Teach caregivers how to communicate with the infant under stressful circumstances and do this in consistent and nurturing ways. This could be practised through role-play scenarios, printed materials or linking families with good quality online resources (e.g. Emerging Minds Families)
Whole system approach: Access to multiple services and treatments may be needed to meet the mental health needs of infants. A coordinated approach to care and collaboration between services involved in the life of the whole family are crucial for wrap-around support and improving health outcomes. E.g., if housing or caregiver mental health are concerns, families may need support from social services and adult mental health services.
Join the Workshop
To learn more about how you can support infant mental health in your work, please join us on 11 March for an interactive multidisciplinary workshop we’re hosting in partnership with Emerging Minds.
[i] Zero to Three (2001)
2 February 2023