PIRI
JULY - DECEMBER 2010 NEWSLETTER
PARENT-INFANT
RESEARCH
INSTITUTE &
INFANT CLINIC
Helping Families
with Premature
Babies
The Infant Clinic provides a
specialised service to families
with a premature baby.
Premature birth can often be
followed by problems such as:
Delayed stress, anxiety and
trauma
Postnatal depression
Adjustment problems
Partner relationship problems
Issues in relating to the baby
Problems in understanding the
baby’s behavioural cues and
developmental progress
Premature babies often respond
to parents in a different way than
full-term babies in the early
months.
Their Neonatal Intensive Care
Unit (NICU) experience has been
stressful and very different from
that of full-term babies.
Preterm neonates may be
unsatisfying social partners to
their mothers. They tend to “shut
down”, turn away and go to sleep,
and become dysregulated more
often than full-term babies.
In addition, mothers (and fathers)
have often gone through their
own psychological distress during
their baby’s hospitalisation, which
can result in excessive anxiety,
stress, depression and posttraumatic stress disorder.
Many problems experienced by
the baby, the parent and in their
relationship together can become
exacerbated over time.
Our services to parents of
preterm babies include individual
counselling, psycho-educational
sessions and a ‘PremieHUGS’
group for parents of premature
babies will be starting in 2011.
Part of our approach is based on
our evaluated program working
with parents in the NICU
(PremieStart) that focuses on
both the mother and the baby and
aims to facilitate their ongoing
relationship and attachment
process.
Referrals can be made for
assistance to parents of
premature babies. Contact the
Intake worker on (03) 9496 4496.
See our training calendar on page
3 for a workshop by Dr Carol
Newnham on the issues of
preterm infants and their parents.
The Parent-Infant Research Institute (PIRI) is a vigorous & innovative Australian
research institute focusing on understanding, developing and applying treatments
to improve parent and infant well-being. PIRI believes that early intervention is the
key to better outcomes for families.
While PIRI has a strong research focus, it also comprises a clinical unit (Infant
Clinic). The Infant Clinic is a Centre of Excellence and provides clinical services to
assist with the difficulties experienced by parents & infants in the first years of life.
T: 9496 4496
F: 9496 4148
www.piri.org.au
New Projects Starting in 2011
Motivational Interviewing to Improve
Help-seeking for Postnatal Depression
We are very pleased to announce the start of a new
study in 2011 that aims to evaluate whether
motivational interviewing, delivered by Maternal and
Child Health Nurses, is helpful in preparing new
mothers to take action for their emotional health needs
in the first year postpartum.
Background
Around 30,000 women annually suffer from postnatal
depression (PND) and untreated depression has
serious negative long-term consequences for mothers
and infants. Although there is now a national approach
– as part of the Federal Government’s National
Perinatal Depression Initiative – to identify women who
have symptoms of PND, research shows that the
majority of women (50-70%) do not accept help.
Currently, no effective, evidence-based strategy to
enhance uptake of treatment exists. There is an urgent
need to determine whether we can improve uptake of
services by women experiencing PND. Motivational
Interviewing has shown enormous success in other
fields of healthcare.
The study
Forty Maternal & Child Health Nurses will be invited to
participate. Half will be trained in motivational
interviewing and will use these techniques during their
appointments with mothers. The other half will
continue to offer current best practice routine care.
Improving Neurobehavioural
Development in Preterm Infants
PIRI has been successful in securing an NHMRC
grant to follow-up children at school age who were
involved in PIRI’s PremieStart study as infants.
Background
There are around 21,000 preterm births in Australia
each year, and more than 50% of these infants will
have lasting developmental impairment. On
average, infants born very preterm are more likely
to be lower on IQ at school-age, three times as
likely to exhibit attention-deficit hyperactivity and at
elevated risk for anxiety and depression.
Early stressful experiences play a role in these poor
outcomes and interventions that minimise stress on
preterm infants have shown short-term benefits.
However, research is urgently needed to confirm if
early gains result in improved long-term
neurobehavioural development to school age.
The study
The aim of this study is to evaluate the long-term
effectiveness of a simple, inexpensive program of
stress-reduction for preterm infants (PremieStart)
on measures of cognition and behaviour. The
PremieStart program teaches parents about infant
behavioural responses, how to protect infants from
stress in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and
encourages sensitive involvement from the earliest
point.
This study will compare developmental outcomes
at 4 and 6 years in intervention and control preterm
children, and a full-term age matched cohort.
Results from our previous smaller trial of
PremieStart showed that the intervention resulted
in short-term improvements in early brain structure
including enhanced white matter connectivity.
In total, 800 women will be followed-up until 12 months
postpartum to evaluate the effectiveness of
motivational interviewing in increasing uptake of
services as needed and subsequently improving mood.
If the study shows that motivational interviewing is
effective in increasing help-seeking when needed, we
would make this training available to all Maternal and
Child Health Nurses.
If you are interested in being involved in this study,
please contact Charlene Schembri on (03) 9496 4496
or [email protected]
If our innovative, cost-effective program for these
highly vulnerable children translates into long-term
educational advantages in this longer study it could
be an invaluable advance in neonatal care and offer
substantial economic benefits. It could improve
quality of life and ensure a healthy start to life.
Start Dates for 2011 Treatment Programs
Referrals Welcome
Getting Ahead of
Postnatal Depression
Beating the Blues
before Birth
The next ‘Getting Ahead of
Postnatal Depression’ group is
due to start in January.
‘Beating the Blues before Birth’
will continue to run throughout
2011.
This 12-week cognitivebehavioural therapy (CBT) group
program is designed to help
women develop coping strategies
to better manage their mood. It
includes three couple sessions to
provide information and support
to partners. The group is
available on a bulk billing basis
through Medicare.
This 8-session cognitive
behavioural therapy (CBT)
program is designed to improve
maternal mood during pregnancy.
Weekly individual sessions with a
psychologist are provided free of
charge as this program is being
evaluated as part of a study.
2011 Training
Calendar for Health
Professionals
We are in the process of
finalising our training calendar
for 2011, so stay tuned!
3 – 4 MARCH
A two-day workshop for
psychologists on treatment of
postnatal depression, presented
by Professor Jeannette Milgrom
and Dr Jo du Buisson.
Community HUGS
MAY
A one-day workshop presented
by Dr Carol Newnham,
neuropsychologist, researcher
and editor of PremiePress, about
understanding and resolving
interactional difficulties of
mothers and their premature
infants.
The next ‘Community HUGS’
playgroup will be starting
Thursday 3 February.
For more information, please
contact us on (03) 9496 4496 or
[email protected].
To refer, contact the Intake
Worker on (03) 9496 4496.
Community HUGS (CHUGS) is a
10-session therapeutic playgroup
that offers direct, early
intervention to improve motherinfant interactions and attachment
following postnatal depression,
anxiety, or a difficult transition to
parenthood. As this program is
being offered as part of a
research project, there is no
charge for the sessions.
We have a limited number of free
training places available for
MCHNs interested in CHUGS.
To obtain a referral form, contact
Charlene on (03) 9496 4496 or
[email protected]
Half the women who participate in
this study receive the 8-session
CBT treatment. The other half
receive enhanced routine care.
All participants are clinically
assessed by a psychologist and
linked in with appropriate services
as needed. A psychologist will
also keep in touch with all
participants and monitor their
mood by phone and/or
questionnaires at three follow-up
time points until 6 months postbirth.
For a full list of training
opportunities, visit our website:
www.piri.org.au.
To obtain a referral form, please
contact Charlene Schembri
on (03) 9496 4496 or
[email protected]
HOLIDAY WISHES
This is our last newsletter for
2010 and we would like to wish
you all a very safe and happy
holiday season.
Our thanks to all of you and we
look forward to your further
involvement with PIRI or the
Infant Clinic in 2011.
PIRI & Infant Clinic Team
Prof Jeannette Milgrom
Director, Psychologist
Ms Jennie Ericksen
Coordinator, Psychologist
Dr Carol Newnham
Psychologist, Researcher
Dr Charlene Schembri
Psychologist, Researcher
Ms Sofia Rallis
Psychologist
Dr Alan Gemmill
Researcher
Mr Christopher Holt
Researcher
Ms Elizabeth Loughlin
Dance Therapist
Dr Jessica Ross
Psychologist, Researcher
Dr Carmel Ferretti
Psychologist, Researcher
Dr Jo du Buisson
Psychologist
Dr Helen Skouteris
Researcher (Honorary)
Ms Barbara Frazer
Admin Assistant
Ms Elizabeth Groth
Admin Assistant
Newsletter edited
edited by
by Charlene
Charlene Schembri
Schembri
Newsletter