1. The Ububele Baby Mat Service – A primary preventative mental health intervention in a culturally diverse setting.
- Author
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Dawson, N, Richards, J, and Frost, K
- Subjects
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INFANT care , *MENTAL health , *ATTACHMENT behavior , *PSYCHOLOGY of caregivers , *CULTURAL pluralism , *RACISM , *PSYCHOLOGY - Abstract
The Ububele Baby Mat Service is a community-based, parent–infant mental health intervention offered at five primary health care clinics in Alexandra Township, in Johannesburg. The aim of the intervention is to promote healthy caregiver-infant attachments. There has been a steady increase in the number of mother-baby dyads making use of the service. This paper aims to explore how the Baby Mat Service and Baby Mat practitioners position and locate themselves in a culturally diverse community setting where multiple meaning systems are drawn on for making sense of health concerns. Two key components of the Baby Mat Service are discussed: i) the presence of an inter-racial therapeutic couple on the mat; and ii) the stance adopted by the Baby Mat practitioners in relation to culturally diverse understandings of a presenting problem. The therapeutic couple engages with culturally-informed frames of reference in an attitude of wondering and tentative thinking (“mhlawumbe”in isiZulu). When a respectfully curious stance was taken by practitioners, it was found to help those accessing the mat to find symbolic meaning in the presenting problem and integrate this with cultural understandings. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 2017
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