The latest report by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) recommends that provision of infant mental health services should be "the next frontier for early intervention". It says such services ought to be provided in every locality – arguing that giving babies a good start in life is a public health issue of equal importance to tackling obesity or preventing infectious diseases.
Robin Balbernie, a child psychotherapist in charge of Secure Start, an infant mental health service in Gloucestershire, says infant mental health services should be given the same weight as adult and child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS).
"Those early relationships set the unconscious background for the rest of your life," he explains. "There is a lot of research that links future involvement in crime with over-stressed parenting in the first three years of life. We’re trying to take the high-risk families and work with them before something goes wrong."
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