Health visitors call for investment in infant mental health

The organisation, which supports the development of high-quality practice and has more than 8,000 members, is calling on government to ensure there are specialist health visitor posts in infant mental health in all local areas.

It argues that an increased focus on the first two years of a child's life would help the NHS to reduce the impact of maternal depression and other perinatal mental health problems on babies’ mental wellbeing.

It is calling for local authorities, who were handed responsibility for commissioning public health for 0- to five-year-olds last year, to ensure that all health visitors have the training, capacity and support to provide “sufficient advice to all new parents”.

The call coincides with a survey conducted by the institute that found that 27 per cent of health visitors have never received training in infant mental health. The institute said training that does exist is inconsistent across the country.

The institute is also calling for enough investment so that health visitors’ caseloads are around 300. It said that 61 per cent of health visitors have caseloads of between 400 and 1,000 children.

Cheryll Adams, director of the institute, said that many new mothers do not have ongoing mental health support.

“Recent Institute of Health Visiting surveys into infant mental health show that more than 80 per cent of health visitors use their antenatal visit to talk to parents about infant mental health," she said.

“However, post-birth, they do not have sufficient contact with mothers in order to give adequate ongoing support.
 
“Helping parents to understand how to interact with their babies, from day one, helps all children to have the best start in life and, in many cases, helps to prevent later mental health issues from developing."