We start this issue of Perspectives in Infant Mental Health with letters from our President Astrid Berg and Executive Director Kaija Puura describing the way in which WAIMH is striving in the face of the devastation caused to families by the many global crises currently taking place, to enable us to connect, have conversations, network and support one-another. These are timely reminders about the potential for us to connect via our membership platform alongside the urgency of us having conversations with one another to share our experiences and learning. Related to this, we publish an introduction and link to the newly published Australian Position Paper entitled Infants in Refuge.
Our first clinical practice paper describes the experiences, research and lessons learned over the past ten years, through a Nordic clinical and academic training collaborative that was established to disseminate the delivery of Child-Parent Psychotherapy. The second paper is the first of a series that will provide a summary of one of the chapters in the newly published 5th Edition of the Handbook of Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health, this first paper being focused on the Danish NGO Fairstart Foundation [FS], which has developed a comprehensive approach to addressing significant global stressors that affect parents and caregivers of infants, particularly in the context of non-parental care. FS´s mission is to transform recommendations for childcare from international research into education, tailored to the various needs of partner organizations worldwide, thereby creating an efficient and scalable method by educating staff in partner NGO´s and government agencies as trainers of local caregiver groups. Our third clinical paper explores the transformative potential of the JUSTICE framework in reflective supervision, particularly for supervisors and leaders working with diverse communities globally, using a case study to illustrate its application across a range of cultural contexts. This article advocates for the JUSTICE framework as a necessary tool for advancing equitable reflective supervision, pushing organizations to make a sustained commitment to social justice in leadership practices.
This provides us with a nice segue into our Reflections on Practice section which focuses on the thoughts of five leading IMH clinicians – Astrid Berg; Juané Voges; Miri Keren; Hisako Watanabe; and Debbie Weatherston from globally diverse parts of the world (South Africa; Israel; Japan and USA respectively) about the key role of Reflective Practice in effectively supporting the parent-infant relationship.
Our Opinion Pieces this time includes two papers on attachment, the first of which raises questions with regard to the cultural and contextual appropriateness of IMH measures such as some of the standard tools that are currently being used to assess attachment in settings that are very different to those in which they were developed. The second Opinion Piece considers the role of parental attachment styles in nursing interventions for the management of unsettled infants in Newcastle New South Wales, Australia.
Finally, our Letters section provides a response to the Opinion Piece in the last issue of Perspectives by Professor Kai von Klitzing in which he explored the tension between a “culturally sensitive approach” that acknowledges multiple acceptable pathways to young children’s mental health and one that is characterized by “cultural arbitrariness” in which there is a blanket acceptance of virtually all cultural practices. This response to his letter addresses some of his assertions and questions regarding non-traditional approaches to conceiving and raising children.
The issue closes with general information about WAIMH Perspectives (including the paper submission process). 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, which in turn can be shared: https://perspectives.waimh.org/.
With all good wishes,
The WAIMH Perspectives in Infant Mental Health editorial team
Jane Barlow, Editor-in-Chief, United Kingdom
Salisha Maharaj, Assistant Editor, South Africa
Maree Foley, Associate Editor, Switzerland
Jody Todd Manly, Associate Editor, United States
Azhar Abu Ali, Associate Editor, United Arab Emirates
Patricia O’Rourke, Associate Editor, Australia
Joy Osofsky, Associate Editor, United States
Harleen Hutchinson, Associate Editor, United States
Michelle du Plessis, Associate Editor, South Africa
Nicki Dawson, Associate Editor, South Africa
Lauren Keegan, Editor, Australia
Veronica Mestre, Intern Editor, United States
Neea Aalto, Production Editor, Finland
Perspectives in Infant Mental Health Vol. 32 No. 3 | Fall/Winter 2024
Authors
Jane Barlow (United Kingdom), Editor-in-Chief
