9th International Trainers Meeting
King’s College, Cambridge, July 2022
On July 11th and 12th, 2022, NBO and NBAS trainers from all over the world met at King’s College Cambridge, UK. The two-day meetings were followed by the 25th anniversary conference for the Brazelton Centre UK on July 13th.
We had some absolutely wonderful days together, sharing ideas and experiences with the NBAS and NBO in a wide variety of settings and countries.
On Day One, we started our meetings with presentations from the different training sites around the world. A common theme was how the sites had responded to the pandemic and how many countries had moved their NBO and NBAS trainings online. This had caused challenges, but in many places, it also created opportunities to expand training programs and offer training to providers in remote areas or those, who had been unable to travel to receive the training. Many sites also described an increased demand for NBO and NBAS training and not enough trainers. Though these were brief presentations we all gained an understanding of how training sites are run in the different countries and they sparked conversations about how to improve and renew training, mentoring and certification around the world.
We continued day one with excellent presentations. First Dr. Annulika Ifezue, described the wonderful work she and her group have been doing building NBAS and NBO training into the health visiting practice in Manchester, UK. Dr. Betty Hutchon told us about the EiSmart framework, a holistic approach working with High-Risk infants. Dr. Jayne Singer continued the day by introducing us to the Touchpoints Developmental Framework and bringing us back in time by showing us videoclips of how Dr. Berry Brazelton beautifully demonstrated using the method in his consultations with families. We ended the day with Dr. Maggie Redshaw’s excellent presentation on the status on NBO and NBAS research and what questions remain to to be asked and answered.
On Day Two, we divided into smaller groups and had a total of 11 small group discussion sessions, covering a myriad of topics including research, training and implementation of the NBAS and NBO in different settings. From the sessions we established working groups, special interest groups and generated ideas for the WAIMH conference in Dublin 2023 and for the next edition of the NBO handbook.
We missed our colleagues who were not able to join due to the pandemic, including Dr. Kevin Nugent. Kevin was there in spirit throughout all of our conversations and he brought tears to everyone’s eyes when he appeared on the big screen to wrap up our meetings on Day Two.
We will see you in Dublin next year, Kevin!
