Health visitors' perceptions of their role in assessing parent-infant relationships

Area of Science:

• Child development
• Public health
• Mental health

Background:

• Parent-infant relationships are vital for infant neurological and emotional development.
• Early attachment significantly impacts long-term child health and well-being.
• Health visitors play a key role in identifying and supporting parent-infant relationship quality.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore health visitors' perceptions of their role in assessing and supporting parent-infant relationships.
• To understand health visitors' views on their educational needs in this area.
• To identify barriers and facilitators to effective parent-infant relationship support.

Main Methods:

• Semi-structured interviews with six experienced health visitors.
• Purposive sampling to gather diverse perspectives.
• Qualitative analysis of interview data.

Main Results:

• Health visitors utilize multiple assessment methods: observation, risk factors, norms, and intuition.
• Support strategies include home visits, listening support, parenting groups, and referrals.
• Health visitors reported a significant lack of specific training in parent-infant relationship assessment and support.
• Reduced client contact and limited use of assessment tools were identified as challenges.

Conclusions:

• There is a need for national and local consensus on educational and clinical prerequisites for health visitors in parent-infant relationship assessment.
• The Solihull Approach may offer a valuable framework for future health visitor training and practice.
• Further development of training and assessment tools is recommended to enhance health visitor capacity in supporting parent-infant relationships.