IMHAW21 – Key organisations pledge to include infants in children and young people’s mental health

The Parent-Infant Foundation is delighted to announce that national charities including NSPCC, Home-Start UK and the Children’s Commissioner in Northern Ireland have all pledged their support to include infants and made an important commitment to adopt the language of “infant, children and young people’s mental health”.

The Foundation launched its ‘Including Infants Pledge’ this week as part of Infant Mental Health Awareness Week (IMHAW) and is calling on others to follow suit to help make an important shift in understanding, attitudes, policy and provision to help us ensure the needs of our youngest children are considered and responded to.

So far during IMHAW, 66 organisations or individuals have officially taken the pledge through our dedicated webpage. These range from big charities like NSPCC and Home-Start UK to smaller and local organisations like Children North East. The Foundation wants this number to keep increasing throughout IMHAW21 and beyond the week so that the change can be seen for the long term.

Children and young people’s mental health should describe the mental health of all children from 0-18 and beyond, but often the needs of babies and toddlers under two are forgotten.

Changing our language to talk about “infant, children and young people’s mental health” is a simple but powerful way to drive change.

Vicky Nevin, senior policy and public affairs officer from NSPCC said:

“The NSPCC is happy to commit to using the language of ‘infant, children and young people’s mental health’ from now on. This reflects our ongoing work to support the mental health and wellbeing of babies, who are particularly vulnerable to abuse and neglect. Together, we can give voice to society’s youngest children by making sure their needs are always included in conversations about mental health.”

Through taking the pledge, individuals and organisations are committing to talk about “infant, children and and young people’s mental health” wherever appropriate and to include infants in more of their discussions, thinking and action to improve children’s mental health.

Can you or your organisation make this commitment? Take the #IncludingInfants Pledge now!

Find out more about IMHAW21

Watch our new ‘What is infant mental health?’ film