Little Minds Matter – Bradford Infant Mental Health service
Description
Little Minds Matter supports parents, carers and professionals to help babies get the best possible start in life. We offer therapy and support to families with babies and toddlers from conception to the age of two, and consultation and training to professionals.
Information for families
Who is Little Minds Matter for?
We support families with babies and toddlers from conception up to the age of two.
What sort of support do we offer?
We have practitioners from many different professional backgrounds who can offer a range of support tailored to your needs. We can help you to:
• Explore the challenges that having a new baby can bring.
• Think about your relationship with your baby.
• Support you to play with and talk to your baby.
• Talk through concerns you may have about your baby.
• Consider the thoughts and experiences of your baby.
• Think about how your previous experiences are affecting you now.
• Build your enjoyment and confidence in being a parent.
Where do we work?
We work with families who are living within the Bradford Local Authority area.
We’ll try to see you face to face at a time and place that suits you and can include home visits or clinics elsewhere (for example a children’s centre). If that’s not possible, we could contact you through video or telephone call.
How do I get support from Little Minds Matter?
You can get in touch with us yourself if you would like to ask for support. We would love to hear from you. You can ring us on 07766 568 407 or complete this online form and someone will be in touch.
While you are waiting for us to call you back, please feel free to look at the support on offer:
Visit our Facebook, Instagram or the Moments that Matter campaign.
If you would prefer, you can talk to your GP, midwife, health visitor, mental health practitioner, or other health, social care, or educational professional, to get referred to our service. You may want to let them know how you are feeling and that you feel you need some extra support.
What is the Little Minds Matter service?
We offer direct clinical work with families with babies or toddlers from conception to the age of 2, and consultation and training to professionals.
Direct clinical work
We work with families where there are concerns or challenges with the parent-infant relationship. Difficulties in pregnancy, a traumatic birth or past parenting experiences, loss or bereavement, low mood or anxiety can all affect how parents feel about their baby and how they make sense of the world.
Being pregnant and having a baby can be a special and memorable time in a parent’s life. But it can be a difficult time too. Different emotions, experiences and expectations can get in the way and affect how parents feel about themselves, and how they feel about their baby. When extra support is needed, we can provide more intensive help to parents and their babies in these critical first two years of life.
Consultation
Little Minds Matter can support you to support families.If you’re thinking of making a referral to our service, we offer optional telephone consultations (triage) for support, advice and discussion of potential referrals.We also offer:
- Drop-in (“Attachment Matters”) consultations which offers a dedicated space for practitioners to reflect and receive advice relating to a specific family or a particular theme.
- Ongoing consultations regarding specific families providing regular support for professionals where a referral into our service is not appropriate, e.g. if the family is outside of our catchment area.
- Reflective practice groups (reflective discussions) with teams of practitioners to develop practice through the exploration and discussion of experiences in their work surrounding the parent infant relationship.
Training
We offer practical interactive training delivered by highly specialist staff. The training provides both a theoretical knowledge base and space for you to apply this in practice. We hope that you will leave our training feeling more confident in your work supporting complex parent-infant relationships.
Who is in the Little Minds Matter team?
We are a specialist multi-disciplinary team including community support and engagement, family therapy, health visiting, midwifery and psychology.
As a team we have many years of experience in working with parents, babies, and children. Many of our team members have had extra training in the field of early attachment and parent-infant relationships, for example Video Interaction Guidance and Circle of Security.
We use our combined skillsets and knowledge to offer a comprehensive range of interventions for the families with whom we work. Depending on the needs of the family, our interventions may involve one-to-one work, groupwork, or both.
Where do we work?
We work with families who are living within the Bradford Local Authority area.
How can you access Little Minds Matter?
Direct clinical work
Process
- Complete a referral form and send it to us
- If you are unsure whether or not to make a referral, phone us for a telephone consultation (triage)
Criteria
We work with families who are living within the Bradford Local Authority area.
Consultation
Give us a ring! We are always happy to discuss potential referrals or to think together about concerns and challenges you might have while working with families with babies or during pregnancy.
We would love to hear from you if you are interested in setting up a reflective discussion for your team or accessing a drop-in or ongoing consultation. Our drop-in (“Attachment Matters”) consultations are currently held on the second Tuesday of the month (09:00-12:00) and the fourth Wednesday of the month (14:00-17:00).
Training
We offer introductory sessions as well as more in-depth courses aiming to support practitioners in their work with families. We hope to increase confidence in parent-infant observation and build specialist knowledge of parent-infant relationships to support professional assessment and to address concerns.
Find out more information and book online.
Contact Details
Address: Woodroyd Centre, Woodroyd Road, Bradford, BD5 8EL
Email: LittleMindsMatter@bdct.nhs.uk
Tel: 01274 251298
Little Minds Matter leaflet
Further information about the Little Minds Matter service
Better Start Bradford
The Association for Infant Mental Health
Parent Infant Foundation
The 1001 critical days
UNICEF – building a happy baby
“I am grateful and happy I was referred to Little Minds Matter. Thank you so much for all your help and support and believing in me and helping me to build a bond with Ayesha”
“Little Minds Matter helped me realise I was a good mother”
“I was lucky to receive the support from Little Minds Matter. I hope people in my situation will be as lucky as me to receive the support. Because it is worth it to do the process with Little Minds Matter. Big thank you”