Citation

Zeanah CH, Kormacher J, Lim I, Steier A, Zeanah PD. Infant Ment. Health J. 2023; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/imhj.22062

PMID

37247197

Abstract

Infant mental health is explicitly relational and strengths based as a field. Ethical dilemmas in infant mental health have received insufficient attention at the level of infant mental health professionals (IMHP) and other professionals caring for infants who must grapple with questions of when caregivers and infants have conflicting interests. We present composite cases drawn from North American and Australian contexts, using three systems in which such conflicts may commonly manifest: child protection, home visiting, and medical settings. The field of infant and early childhood mental health (IECMH) should begin to discuss such dilemmas and how best to balance the needs of caregivers and infants when they are not well aligned.

Language: en

Keywords

maltreatment; ethics; home visiting; infant mental health; medically ill infants