Grown out of 40 years of experience in Michigan, Infant Mental Health Home Visiting: Supporting Competencies/ Reducing Risks is one of the most comprehensive resources for practitioners and policy makers interested in promoting good infant mental health. This manual is indispensable for infant-family professionals who are looking to incorporate infant mental health principles and promote attachment relationships in their work with babies and families.

This completely revised and updated edition reflects tremendous advances in theory, research and practice that have taken place over the past decade. Grounded in a relational view of infancy, the volume offers a broad interdisciplinary analysis of the developmental, clinical and social aspects of mental health from birth to age three.

What can we do about very young children who cry all the time, or who withdraw, or who resist the very thing they need most: loving care? What can we do about parents who seem lost in the hurts of their own early childhood, and who behave in ways absolutely antithetical to their own stated parenting principles? This is the world of infant mental health, and this book gathers together 25 stories from the author’s 41 years of experience in this remarkable clinical specialty. It will serve as a casebook and guide for infant mental health practitioners, and for the specialized faculty who prepare them. The clarity and accessibility of the cases will, however, make this book compelling to anyone mystified by how our earliest attachment experiences support or confound our later development.

This completely revised and updated edition reflects tremendous advances in theory, research and practice that have taken place over the past decade. Grounded in a relational view of infancy, the volume offers a broad interdisciplinary analysis of the developmental, clinical and social aspects of mental health from birth to age three.

Research on home visiting shows that Early Head Start (EHS) home-based programs benefit from additional training and resources that streamline philosophy and content. In this essential guide, Walsh and Mortensen propose that alignment with Family Life Education’s (FLE) strengths-based methodology results in greater consistency through a model of prevention, education, and collaboration with families. This text is the first to outline linkages between FLE and EHS home visiting. It explores a qualitative study of FLE integrated in a current EHS home-based program and application of FLE methodology to home visiting topics. This approach will influence professional practice and provide a foundation for developing evidence-based home visiting practices. Online content accompanies the text, with videos demonstrating the FLE approach in action and discussion questions to encourage engagement with and understanding of the core material. Transforming Early Head Start Home Visiting: A Family Life Education Approach is essential reading for upper-level undergraduate and masters students in family studies and early childhood education, as well as practitioners working with children and families.

This timely resource analyzes home visits as a primary intervention for at-risk families with infants and young children and details innovative programs for home service delivery. Focusing on family violence, mental illness and alcohol and substance abuse as major challenges to child development, the book presents practical strategies for home visitors to address and prevent problems while fostering an improved environment for raising children. Contributors offer a realistic framework for planning, developing, and training an effective home visitation workforce and tailoring interventions to fit individual family dynamics. And the book's international focus provides a variety of perspectives on evidence-based programs that support families raising children in distressed neighborhoods. Among the featured topics: Home visitation as a primary prevention tool for violence. Developmental parenting home visiting to prevent violence. Supporting the paraprofessional home visitor. Engagement and retention in home visiting child abuse prevention programs. Addressing psychosocial risk factors among families in home visiting programs. Home visitation programs in the United States, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Home Visitation Programs: Preventing Violence and Promoting Healthy Early Child Development is an essential resource for researchers, graduate students and professionals in child and school psychology, social work, educational policy, family advocacy and public health.

Widely regarded as the standard reference in the field, this state-of-the-art handbook offers a comprehensive analysis of developmental, clinical, and social aspects of mental health from birth to the preschool years. Leading authorities explore models of development; biological, family, and sociocultural risk and protective factors; and frequently encountered disorders and disabilities. Evidence-based approaches to assessment and treatment are presented, with an emphasis on ways to support strong parent–child relationships. The volume reviews the well-documented benefits of early intervention and prevention and describes applications in mental health, primary care, childcare, and child welfare settings. The chapter on psychopharmacology has been updated for the paperback edition.

"Maguire-Fong has updated her groundbreaking book designed to assist pre- and inservice professionals working with infants and their families. Each chapter draws from research and real-life infant care settings to provide valuable insights into how to design an infant care program, plan curriculum, assess learning, and work with families"--