Introduction:
This contribution focuses on the very beginning of life - the postpartum period. The transition to parenthood is often enriching, yet many families face significant challenges during the first year after birth. Parents may face a variety of contextual stress factors and peripartum mental health disorders are frequent. In the context of distress in parent-child interactions and child specific factors even very young children may develop mental health problems, most commonly regulatory disorders involving sleep, feeding, and soothing. Such early difficulties often persist and may negatively impact later psychological development.
Despite increasing availability of outpatient consultation services for parents with infants and toddlers, as well as some inpatient treatment options, there remains a shortage of mobile and online psychotherapeutic support for families during early infancy in German-speaking countries.


Method:
HEY (Home Treatment in the Early Years) is a pilot program developed by the Infant and Toddler Consultation Service at ZHAW based on a collaboration between the Institute of Psychology and the Institute of Midwifery and Reproductive Health. It targets families with infants aged 0-12 months who are insufficiently supported by outpatient services and for whom inpatient treatment is not indicated or not feasible. The three-month program combines home visits and online sessions across 12 treatment appointments. The intervention integrates parent-infant psychotherapy, video-based therapy and online parental counseling.
The approach is psychodynamically oriented and aims to enhance parental competence, strengthen reflective functioning, and improve parental sensitivity.


Evaluation:
The implementation of HEY is being scientifically evaluated using parent questionnaires, the CARE-Index (an assessment of the interaction quality), and qualitative interviews with parents.
Preliminary findings and learnings from the pilot implementation will be discussed with a focus on how to best support young families.