SCC: A Global Collaborative Effort

san salvador, El Salvador

SCC conducted a Newborn Behavioral Observation (NBO) training in San Salvador for a group of physicians, nurses, and psychologists in 2019. Currently, in collaboration with Mi Casa Kids—an orphanage in El Salvador—SCC offers education and mentoring for caregivers of neglected and abandoned infants. SCC created video dialogues of two “friends” (acted by SCC child psychiatrist volunteers) discussing the Mi Casa babies and presenting information about developmental science in an engaging and user-friendly way. We are also giving monthly mentoring groups for the caregivers.

chamarajAnagar, India

SCC is continuing to work with the Deenabandhu Bal Ashram—a school and ashram in the Indian state of Karnataka. Child psychiatry fellows in Alex’s Global Infant-Parent Mental Health rotation have given workshops on “Stress and Trauma” and “ADHD” to the teachers in the school. Currently, our intern, Gaya, and two of Alex’s students are continuing to work with the teachers on a project to create a classroom protocol derived from the ADHD workshop that supports self-regulation in all the students.

Lima, Peru

SCC conducted and infant-mental health training—including an NBO training—for healthcare workers at Instituto Nacional Materno Perinatal—Maternidad de Lima. SCC then helped train home visitors in the Thula Sana method (similar to the NBO) for a randomized pilot trial for 60 pregnant women in Lima being conducted by Dr. Elizabeth Levey.

Multan, Pakistan

In collaboration with the Department of Health of South Punjab and Nishtar Medical University, SCC is developing a capacity-building training for lady health workers (a government program of home visitors) in rural Pakistan, where infant mortality is 25th in the nations tracked by the World Health Organization. The training is called “Building Baby Brains” and aims to support the infant-parent relationship, in that way buffering the infant against environmental stressors associated with chronic poverty.

Kasganj, India

Christian Hospital of Kasganj [CHK] provides quality maternity care in the high-risk, low-resource population of the state of Uttar Pradesh. CHK is SCC’s first collaborator in India and has taught student nurses in the nursing school of CHK how to support the infant-parent relationship since 2012. SCC trained the nurses at CHK in Infant-Parent Mental Health, making the CHK nurses the first recipients of UMass Boston’s IPMH certificate.