Does a Perinatal Infant Mental Health Team Hold the Family in Mind? Opportunities and Challenges for Working Systemically in this Specialised Field

Abstract

This paper considers whether systemic family therapy frameworks are used in current Perinatal Infant Mental Health (PIMH) practice. PIMH is a field that is, by nature, relational, focusing on enhancing the development of early parent–infant relationships. It is well accepted that the early years of an infant's life are crucial for brain development, and disturbances in early parent–infant relationships can impact negatively upon the child's development. Five clinicians from a PIMH service in a metropolitan area participated in a focus group related to key systemic concepts: genograms, family of origin, transitions, and morphogenesis. Findings suggest that the PIMH team does hold the family in mind, utilising systemic frameworks predominately in the engagement and assessment phase of intervention. They also highlight that PIMH clinicians focus on roles and boundaries occurring within the immediate and extended family unit and support families with the transition to family expansion phase. The application of working systemically differed significantly among participants, suggesting that the use of systemic frameworks in the PIMH field requires further exploration.