THE Western Trust says it is committed to ensuring every baby and young child has the best start in life and during Infant Mental Health week (10 – 16 June 2018), a new service provided by the two newly appointment specialist health visitors in Infant Mental Health will be introduced.
Aideen Cooney has completed a Master’s degree in Infant Mental Health and is also ‘Sleep Scotland’ trained. Ciara McCloskey has completed a diploma in Infant Mental Health and hopes to do the Master’s this year.
The Trust says: “They help parents who might be experiencing difficulties building a relationship with their baby. They take referrals from Health Visitors anytime between the antenatal period, up until the baby is one year old.
“It is normal for a parent to have a mixture of feelings including negative or unloving feelings about their pregnancy and following the birth of their baby.
“If the feelings are bothering the parent or are more than they consider normal, then then can have talk to their health visitor who will refer to Aideen or Ciara.
“Their aim is to offer help at the earliest opportunity so that the parent and baby’s relationship is given the best start.
“Examples of problems may be if a mother (or sometimes it is the father) is suffering from antenatal or postnatal depression, or maybe the child is irritable and the parent finds it hard to cope with or there is feeding problems that stress the relationship between the baby and parent.
“Aideen is also dedicated to helping parents manage children with sleep difficulties and runs sleep clinics in the Omagh area.
“Pop into our Antenatal Clinic, Altnagelvin Hospital anytime before 5pm today to have a chat with our staff.”
