[Parent-infant-program "Menschenskind"--concept and outcomes of the first three years]

Families with young children often experience high levels of difficulty and disturbance. Based on new knowledge of infant research, specific treatment approaches have been developed. The focus of these new approaches is the parent-infant relationship. To illustrate such a relationship-based treatment approach, the parent-infant programme "MenschensKind" will be introduced. Of the 263 families treated between October 1993 and December 1996, 72% had infants in the first year of life. Sleeping problems, excessive crying and explicit difficulties in the parent-infant relationship were the main reasons for referral. Treatment approaches included: developmental guidance, guided parent-infant training sessions (a new method for parents with excessively crying infants 0-4 months) and parent-infant-psychotherapy. Treatment rarely exceeded ten sessions. A proportion of the families recontacted the programme at a later stage, so serial brief sessions became a common method of treatment. The presented findings indicate a high need for a national network of specialised parent-infant programmes in Germany.