Infant family mental health from hospital to community

2021

When infants spend their earliest months in the hospital, specialized infant mental health support is needed to help parents to recognize and respond to their babys unique cues, successfully develop attachment bonds, and develop a nurturing and secure caregiving relationship. In this project, we bring the expertise of the CHLA infant mental health program to Providence Tarzana Medical Center (PTMC) by: (1) providing infant-family mental health services to families who have an infant hospitalized in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and those being followed in the High Risk Infant Follow-up Clinic; (2) training and consulting with the medical and allied health staff regarding infant mental health services; (3) delivering intensive training to community agencies, including the Child and Family Guidance Center, on providing a continuum of infant mental health services during and after hospitalization; and (4) partnering with the Child Development Institute (CDI) by linking families seamlessly with CDIs Vulnerable Infant Program (VIP), to provide family support and early intervention services at the co-located CDI clinic at PTMC as soon as infants go home from the hospital. Through this project, we will provide a continuum of infant mental health services for families and infants at PTMC and through their transition into the community. This partnership will enable CHLAs and CDIs specialists to nurture the parent-child relationship and promote optimal infant and family development, giving families with medically fragile infants the best chance for happy and healthy lives, now and for generations to come.

NICU, attachment, infant mental health

Performing Direct and/or Demonstration Services, Continuing Education/Community Training, Demonstration Services

Education & Early Intervention, Health-Related Activities

Professionals and Para-Professionals, Family Members/Caregivers, Children/Adolescents with Disabilities/SHCN

None

Single-County

N/A