Norfolk Parent-Infant Mental Health Attachment Project (PRIMAP): working towards integration in attachment, mental health and social care

The Norfolk Parent-Infant Mental Health Attachment Project (PIMHAP) addresses the needs of 'at risk' families in keeping with previous innovations within the area of parent-infant mental health both in the United Kingdom and internationally. This account highlights the need for 'transformational change' at individual, family and structural levels. From the initial point of referral PIMHAP works to achieve integration across agencies through formulating an appropriate package of support with input from psychotherapy, psychiatry, social care and local children's centres. This multidisciplinary cooperation allows a key feature of the project: the offer of assessment and treatment of both adult mental health difficulties and parent-infant attachment. Observations suggest that the further cases are down the 'legal route', with associated truncated time scales, the less possible it is to work therapeutically. It is not possible to identify a case that is fully representative of the work since families and needs are complex and varied.