You can’t have one without the other: The case for integrated perinatal and infant mental health services
Document Type
Journal Article
Publication Title
Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry
PubMed ID
35257590
Publisher
SAGE
School
School of Arts and Humanities
RAS ID
52353
Abstract
Perinatal and infant psychiatry has been described as ‘a specialty in search of a home’ (Newman, 2020), referring to its awkward placement between adult and child mental health services. Inherent tension comes from bringing together two distinct clinical traditions – infant mental health, with its focus on parent–child relationships and infant development, and perinatal psychiatry, with its focus on maternal mental illness in pregnancy and the postpartum. The practical challenge lies in holding the interests of parents and infants in mind as one works with a parent–child dyad. At a systems level, this can produce structurally separate services for parents and infants, resulting in the fragmentation of care for families in need.
DOI
10.1177/00048674221083874
Access Rights
subscription content
Comments
Lim, I., Newman-Morris, V., Hill, R., Hoehn, E., Kowalenko, N., Matacz, R., & Sundram, S. (2022). You can’t have one without the other: The case for integrated perinatal and infant mental health services. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 56(6), 586-588.
https://doi.org/10.1177/00048674221083874