Ireland
NBO Training in Clonmel and Cork and Master Classes with the Limerick Infant Mental Health Network & the Special Interest Group in Perinatal and Infant Mental Health, Psychological Society of Ireland.
The Irish Times reports on Newborn Behavioral Observations (NBO) training, which was developed at Boston Children’s Hospital and is now being used across the world. Kevin Nugent, PhD, devised the program for health professionals to help parents try to understand what their babies are saying long before their first words. Click here for the full story.
Special Interest Group in Perinatal and Infant Mental Health, Psychological Society of Ireland
Professor Kevin Nugent presented a Master Class on the THE PERINATAL PERIOD AND THE INFANT MENTAL HEALTH NBO PRACTITIONER, on Wed. April 9th. The ZOOM meeting was organized and facilitated by Eithne Ni Longphuirt, Jade Walsh and Anne-Marie Casey. Powerpoint presentation was made available.
Limerick Infant Mental Health Network Master Class
Professor Kevin Nugent presented a Master Class on the use of the NBO as a form of support for new parents to the 40 members of the Limerick Infant Mental Health Network, on January 12, 2021. The ZOOM webinar was hosted by Helen Ryan and Melinda Hughes.
Virtual NBO Training at Young Knocknaheeny (now known as Let’s Grow Together: Infant and Childhood Partnerships)
The second NBO Training to take place in Ireland was presented virtually on the ZOOM platform from November 30th to December 2nd, sponsored by the Young Knocknaheeny Area Based Childhood Programme, Cork and organized by Manager Katherine Harford and Catherine Maguire, Clinical Psychologist and Infant Mental Health Mentor. Trainers were Yvette Blanchard and Kevin Nugent.
NBO Training at Tipperary Infant Mental Health Project
The first NBO training conducted in Ireland, was sponsored by the Tipperary Infant Mental Health Project, under the direction of Katherine O’Daly, who is the Coordinator of the Tipperary Infant Mental Health Project. The NBO faculty consisted of Deanna Gibbs, Emily Hills and J. Kevin Nugent and the training was held in Clonmel, Ireland on May 28-29th., 2019. Participants included 26 practitioners, 16 of whom work in frontline services in Co. Tipperary, and 10 of whom who work in other IMH-related services around the country, including the Area Based Childhood Projects of Young Knocknaheeny in Cork, ABC Start Right in Limerick, Young Ballymun in Dublin, the HSE Child and Family Psychology Service in Ennis Co. Clare and the Maternity Hospital at Waterford University Hospital.
Other Highlights
The Tipperary NBO training was preceded by the Tipperary Infant Mental Health National Symposium, "Building an Infant Mental Health Community: Learning to Listen to Babies, Parents and Ourselves”, held at the Clonmel Park Hotel on Monday May 27 th.. The attendance of almost 300, from a range of health care disciplines, came from all over Ireland. Katherine O’Daly welcomed the participants, while Ella Lovett, President of the Irish Association for Infant Mental Health delivered the opening address. Kevin Nugent was the Keynote Speaker, the title of which, was “The Perinatal Period - the Intervention Point Par Excellence Across the Life Span?”. The Symposium Speakers included Deanna Gibbs, Emily Hills, J. Kevin Nugent, Rosarii O'Donnell-Connorton, Naomi Burke, Catherine Maguire, Katherine Harford, Mary Fanning and Hazel Murphy. The Tipperary Infant Mental Health Steering Group is made up of representatives from the Psychology Department in the HSE in Clonmel, Tusla, Clonmel Community Resource Centre, Cuan Saor Domestic Violence Service, Clonmel Community Mothers Programme and Barnardos.
Katherine O’Daly reports: “We have some ideas here in Clonmel about exploring how the NBO could be used with foster carers who have newborn babies placed in their care so they can become more attuned to the baby and understand and recognise their cues as early as possible given the difficult experience the baby will have had being separated from his/her mother and father. And also with parents whose babies have been taken into care and who are seeing their babies at regular access visits. As those visits can be very challenging for both the baby and their parent, we have been thinking that if the parent can become more aware of their baby’s cues that she/he might be able to respond in a way that makes the whole experience of the coming together and the separating at access visits, gentler and more positive for all of them. Audrey Lonergan and Rosarii O’Donnell Connorton, IMH Specialists and HSE Psychologists in South Tipperary, are exploring this avenue. Hazel Murphy, IMH and Early Years Coordinator, and Carole Condren, Public Health Nurse, both working with youngballymun, are exploring the use of the NBO with infants and parents who are homeless and who are living in emergency accommodation in a local hotel. Catherine Maguire, IMH Specialist and Senior Clinical Psychologist in Young Knocknaheeny, and Susan Lehane, Public Health Nurse, both in Young Knocknaheeny, are building the NBO in as part of their inter-disciplinary Home Visiting Programme which supports infants, young children and parents from the antenetal period through the first five years. Looking forward to 2020, our symposium on “The NBO in Ireland” has been accepted for next year's WAIMH conference in Brisbane. It was a collaborative piece with Audrey Lonergan, HSE , Jill Sandvoss of the Community Mothers Clonmel and myself here in Tipperary, Catherine Maguire, IMH Specialist and Senior Clinical Psychologist in Young Knocknaheeny, Hazel Murphy IMH and Early Years Coordinator in Youngballymun and Helen Ryan, IMH Specialist in ABC Start Right in Limerick”.