Infant mental health
Infant mental health
Author
Introduction
Each year 15% of babies born in Brighton will have ‘insecure attachment’, brought about by disruption in care or through maltreatment. This places babies’ mental health and their social, emotional and cognitive development at high risk.
2021 Award
Dr Kerry Taylor (CF 2016) is founder and Director of BrightPIP (Brighton Parent Infant Psychological Therapy), a mental health charity. It is based in Moulsecoomb, an area ranked among the top 3% most deprived neighbourhoods in the country. Many of the families who use the service experience domestic abuse, poverty or housing difficulties. A significant number of parents have had their own Adverse Childhood Experiences and have struggled with birth trauma or perinatal mental health issues. These can all affect their ability to respond to their child’s needs.
Kerry has been awarded one of our Activate grants to pilot the UK’s first Attachment and Biobehavioural Catchup (ABC) intervention with vulnerable families, in Brighton and Hove. ABC is an in-depth therapeutic intervention for infants aged 6-24 months and their caregivers, using video and in-person sessions in the family home over a period of ten weeks. It is a method well established with a high evidence base in the USA, but not yet piloted in the UK. Via her charity, Kerry will use the funding to recruit and train two clinicians in the ABC method, and work with local practitioners to identify ten families best suited for the project. Throughout, she will work with her research partners at the University of Delaware to monitor and evaluate the pilot, with the aim of sharing the learnings more widely with parent-infant practitioners and services around the UK. She hopes to use the evidence gathered through the pilot to ensure wider and longer-term delivery of the ABC method to support more vulnerable families.
Kerry’s Fellowship to the USA explored parent-infant projects in New York and early years preventative mental health.
2021 Award
Dr Kerry Taylor (CF 2016) is founder and Director of BrightPIP (Brighton Parent Infant Psychological Therapy), a mental health charity. It is based in Moulsecoomb, an area ranked among the top 3% most deprived neighbourhoods in the country. Many of the families who use the service experience domestic abuse, poverty or housing difficulties. A significant number of parents have had their own Adverse Childhood Experiences and have struggled with birth trauma or perinatal mental health issues. These can all affect their ability to respond to their child’s needs.
Kerry has been awarded one of our Activate grants to pilot the UK’s first Attachment and Biobehavioural Catchup (ABC) intervention with vulnerable families, in Brighton and Hove. ABC is an in-depth therapeutic intervention for infants aged 6-24 months and their caregivers, using video and in-person sessions in the family home over a period of ten weeks. It is a method well established with a high evidence base in the USA, but not yet piloted in the UK. Via her charity, Kerry will use the funding to recruit and train two clinicians in the ABC method, and work with local practitioners to identify ten families best suited for the project. Throughout, she will work with her research partners at the University of Delaware to monitor and evaluate the pilot, with the aim of sharing the learnings more widely with parent-infant practitioners and services around the UK. She hopes to use the evidence gathered through the pilot to ensure wider and longer-term delivery of the ABC method to support more vulnerable families.
Kerry’s Fellowship to the USA explored parent-infant projects in New York and early years preventative mental health.