Nursery World - Mental health teams 'needed for babies'

Mental health teams should be created for babies, based on a multi-disciplinary, multi-agency approach, a children's mental health charity said last week. In its report, Mental Health in Infancy, Young Minds said the role of health visitors and midwives needs to be expanded to include more mental health work, and GPs and Sure Start workers should receive more training in this field.

In its report, Mental Health in Infancy, Young Minds said the role of health visitors and midwives needs to be expanded to include more mental health work, and GPs and Sure Start workers should receive more training in this field.

'Frontline staff need to be supported by specialists in infant mental health where more serious problems are found, who should be a team within the specialist children's mental health service so that any ongoing problems can continue to be dealt with,' the charity said.

Young Minds emphasised that early intervention is essential, as research had demonstrated that the first two years of life see the most rapid period of brain growth and that its development is most closely linked to the baby's relationship with its primary caregiver, usually the mother.

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