Interfacing infant mental health knowledge systems: reflections on the narratives of lay home visitors’ experiences of learning and applying relational concepts of development in a south african intervention program

This article explores convergences and divergences between current research‐based, relational IMH mental health models and “community” knowledge held by a group of South African lay home visitors from a socioeconomically deprived township. These women were trained in a psychoanalytic and attachment‐informed infant mental health program that promotes a relational model of infant development. They provide an intervention that supports high risk mother–infant relationships in the same locality. A two‐tiered approach was taken to the analysis of the home visitor interviews and focused on the home visitors’ constructed narratives of infant development posttraining as well as the personal impact of the training and work on the home visitors themselves. The study found that psychoanalytic and attachment‐informed thinking about development makes sense to those operating within the local South African cultural context, but that the accommodation of this knowledge is a complex and challenging process. RESUMEN La cuestión de una investigación interconectada y el conocimiento clínicamente generado en el campo de la salud mental infantil (IMH) con conocimiento cultural local y sistemas de creencias ha provocado extensas discusiones en años recientes. Este estudio explora convergencias y divergencias entre los actuales modelos relacionales de salud mental IMH basados en la investigación, y el conocimiento ‘comunitario’ que mantiene un grupo de visitantes a casa la...
Source: Infant Mental Health Journal - Category: Child Development Authors: Tags: ARTICLE Source Type: research