This is a free, member only session. 

Please join the Perinatal & Infant Mental Health Interest Group Community via OTA Connect here before registering.

OVERVIEW

This special interest group is for Occupational Therapists working in or curious about working in perinatal and infant mental health settings.

The group aims to share information and exchange ideas relating to perinatal and infant mental health experiences occurring within the stages of preconception, pregnancy and infant loss, birth and the postnatal period, parenting, relationships and families within the first three years.

Meeting bimonthly, this group will have a range of opportunities for attendees to interact with, which includes, presentations, webinars and reflective discussion groups.

The objectives of these would be to;

• Share knowledge from practitioners, researchers and educators who are working within a variety of perinatal contexts.
• Provide opportunities for reflective practice 
• Supported exploration of the perinatal and infant mental health occupational therapy scope of practice 
• Specific topics of interest within the perinatal and infant mental health context include, but are not limited to; 
• Application of developmental and attachment frameworks within dyadic and family systems 
• How family systems and dyadic approaches support occupational therapy interventions the application of evidence based therapeutic approaches relevant to the perinatal period and occupational therapy 
• Supporting mental health presentations that emerge during the perinatal period (anxiety, depression, OCD, eating disorders, relationship with the body, birth trauma) 
• Supporting pre-existing mental health, trauma and co-occurring mental health and other presentations 
• Supporting psychosocial diagnosis and disability within the perinatal period 
• How a variety of mental health presentations may influence parenting, relationships and an individual's experience within their contexts. 
• Keeping “baby’s experience in mind” and infant development 
• The influence of reproductive technologies on perinatal experiences 
• Supporting families with a prenatal diagnosis and other pregnancy related medical issues 
• Pregnancy, infant loss and terminations for medical reasons 
• Birth as a rite of passage, birth experiences (home and hospital births, NICU and Special Care stays) 
• Perinatal trauma 
• Early parenting skills, challenges and occupational adaptation, adjustment to parenthood/Matrescence/Patrescence Research within the perinatal and infant mental health occupational therapy area

MEETING DETAILS

TOPIC:

Supporting Perinatal mental health by addressing the infant-parent relationship

PRESENTERS:

Catherine Daly and Chris Hodges

DATE:

Thursday, 22 May 2025

TIME:

12:00pm - 1:00pm | NSW, ACT, VIC, TAS, QLD

11:30am - 12:30pm | SA, NT

10:00am - 11:00am | WA

MEETING PLATFORM:

Zoom: This session will be run on Zoom. Registrants will be sent separate login details one business day prior to the session. Please check all email folders for this information. This meeting will not be recorded.

Please also ensure you have created a Free Zoom account prior to meeting start time.

If you have questions regarding the Zoom system requirements please visit: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/categories/200101697-Getting-Started

REGISTRATION FEES & INFORMATION

OTA Member: Free

If you are a non member who wishes to attend please contact us to discuss your options.

Registrations close Tuesday 20 May 2025 11.59pm AEDT 

MEETING DOCUMENTS & RESOURCES

Agendas, resources and meeting minutes are available for members to download on the IG page once we have received these from the convenors. This meeting will not be recorded.

You must be logged in to access this page.

DISCLAIMER

Any material, content, advice or resources shared and discussed at interest groups is general in nature and is used to guide peer discussion and support only. Occupational Therapy Australia encourages all participants to think critically and appraise the content for individual circumstances. Occupational Therapy Australia does not necessarily endorse content delivered in these formats and accepts no liability for any consequences resulting from adhering to the content shared at interest groups. All opinions expressed by the convenor or other participants are the opinions of those individuals and do not represent or reflect the views of Occupational Therapy Australia, its affiliates or employees.

Interest Group Participants

By registering to attend, participants agree to actively contribute and show respect to all other participants. We ask you to take personal notes and monitor the Interest Group webpage for meeting resources. Occupational Therapy Australia reserves the right to remove members from an Interest Group at its discretion.