Protected: Therapeutic approaches for infants and young children under five: working with traumatised and marginalised groups – 29th March
Mental healthcareCourse information
About the course
The course has been designed around several overarching themes broadly covering assessment, intervention, and research in this age group, including interventions that are delivered individually and in groups. The clinical population covered will include fathers and mothers with complex mental health, trauma and interpersonal difficulties, focusing on the perinatal period but also beyond. There will be an emphasis on how mental health difficulties manifest in under-fives, and an introduction to the assessment tools and interventions for use with the under-fives currently available within SLaM.
Through the use of case studies and video footage attendees will get overview of group programmes such as Staying Well, Baby and Us, and Circle of Security.
There will be an introduction to infant’s emotional development in a relational context. How to hold the baby in mind and understanding of parent-infant attunement, clinical observation skills, and communicating with and for the baby. This will include an overview of the SUSI under 5s mental health assessment process, trialled in studies with vulnerable populations of babies, young children and families.
We will be showing examples of psychoanalytically informed work with under-fives, including
the work of 10 Windsor walk-a centre for psychonalysis in South London. We will review the principles of psychodynamic parent-infant therapy, and showcase some of the dyadic relational work we do with traumatised parents and infants.
Attendees will get to evaluate published evidence on assessing the mental health of fathers, co-mothers, step-parents and other partners in the perinatal period, and published evidence on the application and performance of tools used to assess the father-offspring relationship from pregnancy to 24-months postnatal.
We will share principles and practice tips from a good practice guide & case study series on involving and supporting partners of women accessing specialist perinatal mental health services as well as other significant family member – of relevance to both inpatient and community services.
Learning Objectives
After attending this course, participants will be able to:
- Describe how mental health needs in the under-fives can present in the child and within the parent-child relationship
- Discuss how the clinical assessment process can be used to translate into support for child and parent
- Describe the sorts of psychoanalytically-informed interventions used with under-fives
- Use enhanced clinical observation skills and clinical skills when communicating with/for babies
- Identify and discuss trauma-informed interventions for under-fives who have been maltreated
- improve awareness of the CQC guidelines on the Transition from children to adult services
- Identify the mental health needs of fathers in the perinatal period
- Identify the needs of mothers with mental health, trauma, and complex interpersonal difficulties
Course Information
Target audience
Academic, Allied health professional, Assistant psychologist, Clinical psychologist, Clinical support worker, Doctors, Nurses