The target audience for this workshop is clinicians working in Integrated Pediatric Primary Care settings who are interested in enhancing their practice’s ability to provide dyadic and family-based support in clinic. Anecdotes about how families are impacted by the birth of a new baby, and how caregivers may struggle with Postpartum Mood and Anxiety Disorders (PMAD), are supported by empirical data (Hoffman et al., 2017; Slomian et al., 2019). Unfortunately, due to healthcare silos, parental mental health needs are often overlooked or neglected in pediatric offices because the barriers to intervention seem insurmountable. Specifically, because systems serving adults and children are separated, both literally and operationally, pediatric staff are often unable or unwilling to intervene with parents’ own mental health concerns despite pediatric providers having the earliest and most frequent access to infants and families during the postpartum period (Chaudron et al., 2004; Umylyn et al., 2017). Importantly, many of these concerns are mild, time-limited, and well-suited for early intervention with BHC’s within pediatric settings (Umylyn et al., 2017; Yago et al., 2023).

This presentation will focus on using an Infant Mental Health (IMH) lens as a framework to shift toward a relational health focus in pediatrics offices. The APA Monitor’s recent article underscores the growing momentum in relational health, noting that strengthening early caregiver/child relationships may be one of the most powerful tools for fostering lifelong wellbeing (APA Monitor, 2025). Pediatric offices are ideal settings for screening and intervening with parents of infants and toddlers, rather than relying on referrals to adult-serving agencies as a first line of care. Previous research has supported intervening early and within parental-child dyads such as Werner et al., (2016) where researchers found that focusing on the mother-child dyad resulted in significant reductions in both maternal anxiety and depression symptoms. Importantly, relationally focused intervention can have positive impact on developing parent-child relationships, increasing positive parenting practices, and early child development outcomes. Given the well documented improvement in both parents and children, embedded behavioral health clinicians (BHC) in pediatric offices are well suited to address both child and parental challenges in the perinatal period. We will also take time to notice that while much of the mainstream data focuses on maternal mental health, a growing body of literature supports that paternal mental health should be included in any model of infant and early childhood healthcare.

Our current clinical operations are well- positioned to support this kind of work; Pediatric Behavioral Health and Wellness (PBHW) is a large community-based clinic, within an academic medical center, that serves children and families through traditional outpatient mental health services, three integrated pediatric primary care practices, and co-located subspecialty clinics. We have established cross-disciplinary collaborations among pediatric providers, breastfeeding and lactation medicine, and adult and pediatric psychologists to support perinatal families more comprehensively. The presentation will cover the current clinical strategies that have supported the growth of perinatal services. Specifically, some effective strategies have included having embedded BHCs in pediatric offices supporting both children and their parents during the perinatal period, implementing universal screening practices across pediatric practices, incorporating electronic medical record (EMR) referrals along with consultation and warm hand-offs, and offering telehealth as a standard mode of service delivery to increase access and reduce transportation barriers for parents of young infants and toddlers. Growth areas have centered on systems transformation and workforce development to expand the number of clinicians (e.g., medical and behavioral health) equipped to support families during the perinatal period.

Operational logistics to be discussed in this presentation are role clarification, shared workflows for referrals and documentation, and billing strategies. Using our newest collaboration with Breastfeeding and Lactation Medicine as a program example, the presentation will explore both barriers and promising gains in this work, including challenges related to documentation across infant and caregiver medical records. We will also share program data related to average wait times, number of visits, and patient satisfaction to illustrate feasibility and impact.

Increased understanding of how parent mental health contributes to infant and early childhood outcomes

Identify ways that collaborative models within Pediatric Primary Care practices can support caregiver and maternal mental health

Describe barriers to dyad- and family-based work in your practice