Welcome to this Spring (2023) edition of WAIMH Perspectives in Infant Mental Health. As a publication primarily for the IECMH profession, we bring this issue to you, mindful of you and your work challenges and growth moments as you journey alongside infants and young children in their families meet daily. As such, we begin with an acknowledgement:
We acknowledge every baby across the globe and strengthen our resolve to be actively engaged in ensuring that every baby is seen, protected, and provided with nurturing care, along with their families and their communities. We acknowledge all infant and early childhood mental health professionals who are working relentlessly with, and on behalf of babies and their families, across the globe.
This issue begins with a feature: From the Desk of the WAIMH President, Campbell Paul (President of WAIMH). This paper is followed by WAIMH Executive Director Corner, Kaija Puura (WAIMH Executive Director).
We will feature a re-introduction to Joy in the mid-year issue. In addition, Salisha Maharaj (Intern editor) has recently been appointed as WAIMH Perspectives Editorial Assistant. In this issue, we feature an introduction to our newly appointed WAIMH Perspectives Editorial Assistant, Salisha Maharaj, who is from South Africa. Salisha has seamlessly transitioned from her role as intern editor to this new role within the publication. This new role combined with Salisha’s expertise enables us to further grow the publication across a range of mediums, including social media channels.
In addition, since our last full issue, Joy Osofsky (Ph.D.) has joined the Perspectives team as an Associate Editor. Joy is a Professor of Pediatrics, Psychiatry, and Public Health, Head, Division of Pediatric Mental Health, at Louisiana State University, USA. She is also a past president of WAIMH and currently an honorary president of WAIMH. We are delighted to have Joy join our team and we will provide a feature on her work, global contributions, and generosity in our field in our mid-year issue of Perspectives.
What follows is a paper by Sarah Garrity, Sascha Longstreth, and Lisa Linder. All authors are from San Diego State University, USA. The title of their paper is A tale of two programs: Using the Teaching and Guidance Policy Essentials Checklist to guide early childhood mental health consultation at the programmatic level. Their paper describes an early childhood education (ECE) pilot program. The paper specifically explores the interaction between infant mental health consultation and early childhood education-informed guidelines, designed to support early education staff, young children, and their families in ECE settings.
The WAIMH “Infants in Crises” webpage, that has recently been developed by the Perspectives team, is also featured in this issue. Supporting infants and their families even in ideal conditions can be difficult. Adding crises of war, environmental disasters, political unrest, displacement of populations and food and shelter insecurity makes lending one’s mind to that of infants even more challenging. There has been a growing need to focus our efforts on supporting those individuals who work in extremely vulnerable conditions with the development of the “Infants in Crises” webpage. The focus of the webpage is to provide information and resources that are predominately open-source and free access, and that focus on the needs of infants and their families amidst global crises.
The issue then highlights a new WAIMH publication: WAIMH ebook. Global Perspectives on the Transdisciplinary Field of Infant Mental Health 1993 – 2021: WAIMH eBooks Topical Resource Guide, Volume 1. The editors are Miri Keren (Israel), Maree Foley (Switzerland), Deborah Weatherston (USA), Kaija Puura (Finland) and Patricia O’Rourke (Australia).
This World Association of Infant Mental Health (WAIMH) ebook,
… provides readers with a nearly three-decade-long window from which to view theories, interventions, and treatment practices within the specialized and interdisciplinary field of infant mental health. It does this by highlighting a representation of papers, published by WAIMH, in The Signal and Perspectives in Infant Mental Health, from 1993-2021. This ebook comprises 17 chapters. These chapters provide an overview of infant mental health principles and observation practices, professional development topics, such as reflective supervision, parent-infant therapeutic modalities, and settings, as well as contextual topics in the field, such as infant mental health promotion, infant rights, COVID-19, and resilience. Each chapter provides a summary of the topic as well as an invitation to readers to reflect on future directions, opportunities, and challenges, as we continue to work together to progress the social, emotional, and relational health of all infants in their families within their communities.
What follows is a window into some of the WAIMH global activities. First is a brief WAIMH report regarding preparation for the Dublin July 2023 Congress. This report highlights the work of the program committee assessed the abstracts for the Dublin 2023 congress. Continuing with the WAIMH congress theme, this issue then provides details of the WAIMH Sponsor a delegate program that is designed to support inclusive participation in the WAIMH 2023 Congress. Next, is a WAIMH travel report by Kaija Puura and Minna Sorsa (Finland) on the International Association of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions (IACAPAP) Congress, held in Dubai, in December 2022. Finally, this section on WAIMH reports concludes with a brief report on the ASMI – Spain Association for Infant Mental Health and WAIMH Infant and Perinatal Mental Health Regional online Spain and Spanish speaking countries regional congress 2023 (ASMI – Spain Association for Infant Mental Health since Gestation – Asociación para la Salud Mental Infantil desde la Gestación in partnership with Conecta Perinatal – conectaperinatal.com and the World Association for Infant Mental Health).
Next, is a book review by Salisha Maharaj (South Africa), WAIMH Perspectives in Infant Mental Health Assistant Editor. The reviewed book is Babies in Mind: Understanding your baby’s psychological needs, by Jenny Perkel (South Africa). The book was originally written in 2007, with an E-book second edition, revised and updated in 2014 available at: www.childreninmind.co.za/product/babies-in-mind-digital-copy/
The issue concludes with news from the WAIMH Office by Minna Sorsa and Neea-Leena Aalto, the WAIMH Perspectives in Infant Mental Health Flyer, and the current flyer for WAIMH Congress in Dublin, 2023.
Finally, as a reminder, Perspectives papers can be accessed online, with past issues dating back to 1993 currently available by following this link: https://perspectives.waimh.org/perspectives-archive/. Also, past articles are available online in text format: https://perspectives.waimh.org/.
May you and your families and friends, stay safe and well and our warmest wishes to you all.
The WAIMH Perspectives in Infant Mental Health editorial team
Maree Foley (Editor-in-Chief), Salisha Maharaj (Assistant Editor), Jody Todd Manly (Associate Editor), Patricia O’Rourke (Associate Editor), Azhar Abu Ali (Associate Editor), Chaya Kulkarni (Associate Editor), Joy Osofsky (Associate Editor), Neea-Leena Aalto (Production Editor), and Minna Sorsa (Production Editor).
Perspectives in Infant Mental Health Vol. 31 No. 1 | Spring 2023
Authors
Maree Foley, Editor-in-Chief, Switzerland
Salisha Maharaj, Assistant Editor, South Africa
