View clinical trials related to Infant Mental Health.
Filter by:Mental health problems and overweight often co-occur, they have their origin in early childhood and new research evidence suggest a key role of cognitive, emotional and behavioral regulation in the early developmental trajectories and points to the benefits of intervention in infancy that builds on strategies of sensitive parenting. The research group behind this project has developed the PUF program (PUF: In Danish: 'Psykisk Udvikling og Funktion') to target infants' mental health and development within the settings of community health nurses. Still, measures are lacking that address the infants most vulnerable regarding the development and progression of mental health problems and overweight. In this project, we develop and test a new intensified intervention to address major cognitive and regulatory vulnerabilities identified at child age 9-10 months and adapted to the settings of community health nurses. The intervention is created as an add-on to the PUF-program, using an evidence-based method to promote sensitive parenting, the Video-based Intervention to Promote Positive Parenting (VIPP). The new intervention VIPP-PUF comprises six therapeutic sessions delivered by the community health nurse during home visits over a three months period. The intervention builds on teaching the health nurses to promote parents' sensitivity to meet the infants' cognitive and regulatory vulnerabilities, and it takes in account the needs of psycho-socially disadvantaged families. The Infant Health project is conducted in sixteen municipalities across Denmark. We use the Intervention Mapping approach as the study frame and integrate the best practice of community health nurses. The efficacy of the VIPP-PUF intervention is examined in a randomized controlled step-wedge design, in which approximately 1.000 children are followed up to the age of 24 months. The VIPP-PUF intervention is hypothesized to reduce mental health problems at ages 24 months among infants with high levels of cognitive and regulatory problems at age 9-10 months, (primary outcome). Also, it is hypothesized that among children with high levels of cognitive and regulatory vulnerabilities at age 9-10 months, adding the VIPP-PUF intervention to treatment as usual at age 9-10 months, will reduce infants' cognitive and regulatory problems; promote healthy weight development; reduce parents' experiences of stress; promote sensitive parenting and promote parents' feeling of competence and relatedness.
Can a method of working therapeutically with parents and children (under the age of five) be made use of in a Child and Adolescent Mental Health team, in which this kind of work does not regularly take place? I hope to understand whether this model of work can be helpful to the children and their families and to look at how this method was received by the team. It is hoped that by working with the parents and child together, the families will be able to think about both the child's presenting difficulty, but also the relationship between the parents and their child and how the parents' own experiences and difficulties might impact on the present situation.
The primary objective is to rigorously evaluate the effectiveness of the Infant Mental Health Home Visiting (IMH-HV) model on maternal and child outcomes according to legislative standards via a randomized controlled trial. The research team will recruit caregivers and their children (0-24 months) or pregnant women (n=72) from locations across Washtenaw County to participate in the IMH-HV RCT. Half of the women will be randomly assigned to a treatment as usual (TAU) control group (with access to all available community resources), and half of the women will be randomly assigned to the treatment group (i.e., IMH-HV). Women assigned to the control group will not receive IMH-HV treatment through the study team, but will not be prohibited from seeking or accessing IMH-HV treatment or any other services through community resources. Women assigned to the treatment group will receive IMH-HV treatment for 12 months through the study team with rigorous monitoring of fidelity to the IMH-HV model. All study participants will undergo assessments across the 24-month period (12 months of which are the treatment trial) (i.e., baseline (randomization will occur after baseline), mid-points (3, 6 and 9 months) and follow-ups (12, 18 and 24 months) after randomization). Additionally, all study participants will have the opportunity to participate in assessments regarding their experience of the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this study is to evaluate efficacy of the Infant Mental Health Home-Visiting (IMH-HV) model on parental and child outcomes according to legislative standards and consistent with the State of Michigan's benchmarks. If this study confirms the efficacy of the IMH-HV model, this will support the sustainability of IMH-HV in the state of Michigan as evidence from a randomized controlled trial is necessary in order to access certain state and federal dollars. Access to evidence-based and sustainable parenting support can ultimately improve outcomes for this vulnerable population. Specifically this study aims to: 1. Conduct a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the efficacy of IMH-HV treatment utilizing rigorous outcomes monitoring and evaluation methodology to establish that the families served achieve the intended positive benefit. Eligible caregivers and children or pregnant women will be assigned to the control group or the treatment group and both groups will receive research assessments at regular intervals measuring key impacts of the IMH-HV model. 2. Determine IMH-HV efficacy via analysis of treatment impact on key caregiver, child, and family indicators. The hypothesis is that there will be positive impacts of IMH-HV, with caregiver, child, and family-level improvements from baseline to post assessment on key indicators, including: 1. Improved child outcomes as reflected in strengthened child physical and behavioral health, development and school readiness, and reduced risk for child maltreatment. 2. Improved parental outcomes including improved parent mental health, decreased child abuse potential, and enhanced positive parenting. 3. Improved family environment including decrease in crime and family violence, enhance linkage to referrals and improve family economics and self-sufficiency. 3. Identify factors associated with family improvement, including dosage and fidelity of treatment. It is the hypothesis that a dose-response association between the number of home visiting sessions and treatment impact, and a positive association between fidelity of treatment delivered and positive child and family outcomes.