The perinatal period is the time when parents and children meet and develop their relationships. But, the present situation around perinatal medicine is changing rapidly. Many mothers and fathers have come to face the psychological task of pregnancy and childbirth. Psychological care is very important, because it is easy to fall into bad mental health during perinatal period. In Japan, clinical psychologists are the staff in the perinatal medical department, and they are in charge of mental care for parents and babies. In addition, NBO, very early intervention approach and tool of interactive relationship-building, might be useful for interventions of high-risk babies and their families such as NICU hospitalization.

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[in Japanese]

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[in Japanese]

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[in Japanese]

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A clinical psychologist and a medical doctor collaborated on conducting comprehensive assessments of foster families, including psychiatric assessments for foster children, then conveying appropriate ways to respond and take care of foster children. The program consisted of nine sessions, and nine foster families participated. Of the nine children enrolled, six had a tendency to disinhibited attachment disorder, one had borderline intellectual functioning, one had an unspecified anxiety disorder, and one had no mental symptoms. The three cases shown in the results made improvements after receiving advice on “handling irritation and anger”, “reviewing foster childʼs perception of oneʼs own life history”, “providing appropriate level of academic tasks”, etc. The programʼs effectiveness was evaluated via a questionnaire addressed to the foster parents and foster children before and after the program. Significant differences were found in the foster motherʼ comprehensive and the externalizing scores on the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), and the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children-A (TSCC-A) responses from the foster children, suggesting the effect of this program. This research was conducted as a pilot study for future random sampling tests.

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