SC21 – Using Telehealth to Deliver Brief Therapy Interventions in Infant Mental Health
Location: Sand Pebble D-E
Even in the most resourceful and resilient families, the transition to parenthood can present individual, relational, and contextual stressors that can compromise healthy trajectories of development. Whereas the crisis(es) may be transient and evolve often, it can still create significant concern among new parents. How can families be provided with more effective and efficient care in the transition to parenthood when they most need support? Further, how can clinicians account for situations in which the first session may be the last? This presentation discusses a psychotherapy approach that attempts to address these issues through a telehealth application of Brief Therapy principles.
Parentline is a telehealth service developed by psychologists at University of San Francisco for families with children birth to three. Parentline counselors empathically apply solution-focused yet flexible interventions when responding to developmental, psychosocial, and postpartum concerns via phone, e-mail, and video conferencing modalities. Presenters will detail this protocol and its integration with the delivery of focused, skill-based interventions, which research indicates is especially supportive for new parents. Pilot study results of the protocol, which is hypothesized to increase parenting confidence, decrease anxiety and depressive symptoms, and improve perceptions of support in the first six months postpartum, will be shared.
Educational Objectives:
- Identify and critique how theoretical and practical foundations of Brief Therapy have informed the Parentline intervention protocol;
- Demonstrate how specific Brief Therapy techniques can be applied to target symptoms of postpartum depression, anxiety, and stress;
- Identify how Brief Therapy techniques can be successfully delivered via telehealth and examine whether this is a modality they can adapt for their own use.