Publish date: 29 December 2021
BABS is a new Parent Infant Mental Health Service (PIMHS) in Sefton supporting vulnerable/at risk families during the antenatal and postnatal period. BABS will offer specialist, therapeutic, ‘easy to engage’ parent infant mental health support to parents/carers and infants living in the community to help them build good bonds and attachment with their baby.
The service will have bases in Netherton, Seaforth and Southport and will also see families in their own homes.
Consultant Clinical Psychologist and BABS Lead Dr Lisa Marsland Hall said
“Our Relationships are Everything! We need to support our vulnerable families in the community to invest, build good bonds and break cycles with the most important one - the parent infant relationship.
“In BABS we believe that most parents want to be ‘the best possible parent they can be to their baby’ (most wanting to be a better parent than their own parents!), but life is hard for many families and sadly things get in the way. We want to support parents to separate out their own past parenting experience, own issues/struggles from their relationship with their baby and so they can be the parent they want to be to their baby.”
BABS offer easy to engage, non-judgemental, evidence based parent-infant therapy and support, for pregnant women, new parents and partners, who struggle with their emotional wellbeing, other vulnerability factors, and who have concerns about their bonding and relationship with their baby.
BABS sessions may take place in the family home or in the local Family or Wellbeing Hubs in Community.
We accept referrals from all multi-agency professionals: midwives, health visitors, GPs, social workers and other professionals working with families. Families can also self-refer. An initial home visit will take place within four weeks of referral being accepted.
We also welcome telephone enquiries to discuss suitability prior to referral. Please call us on 07787 277 524. Referrals can be sent to mcn-tr
Parents accepted for BABS support will be assessed using the following:
- Psychological/psychotherapeutic assessment of parent-infant mental health, bond and attachment relationship via clinical sessions
- Parent-infant observation
- Collaborative, joint MDT assessments, and ‘think family assessments’.
If families would like to find out more about how Sefton BABS can help, they can speak to their GP, midwife, health visitor or any other multi-agency professional who is supporting you. They will be able to refer you to our service if they think we can help or we are happy for you to self-refer if you feel able.
We work in partnership with:
- GPs in Sefton
- Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust midwives
- Ormskirk Maternity NHS midwives
- Public in Sefton
- Community Voluntary Sector - Venus
- Wellbeing Centres/Family Hubs in Sefton
- Mersey Care 0-19 services in Sefton:
- Health visitors
- School nurses
- Mersey Care mental health services in Sefton:
- Specialist Perinatal Service
- Community Mental Health Teams
- Assessment and Immediate Care Teams
- Talking Matters Sefton IAPT (Mental Health Matters)
- CAMHS (Alder Hey).
If you are one of the above multi-agency professionals. We welcome telephone enquiries to discuss suitability prior to referral. Please call us on 07787 277 524 if you would like to arrange this. Referrals can be sent to mcn-tr
In addition to the clinical support we provide to families, we offer specialist parent infant mental health training and consultation to multi-agency professionals locally.