Prématurité, santé mentale … Espoir

This project aims to adapt existing services, workshops and resources to take into account the significant impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of families with one or more premature babies. The project will make it possible to extend the offer of services to families whose premature child is between 0 and 8 years old in several regions of Quebec. The project will also support the health professionals who intervene with these families so that they can adapt their intervention with the parents.

Lead organization: Préma-Québec

Increasing access to and quality of services to improve the mental health of families with one or more premature babies in Québec.

WHO
WHAT
HOW
WHERE
WHY

Families in Québec with one or more children born prematurely (between ages 0 and 8).

Objectives

This project is working to improve the quality of existing services, workshops and resources to support the mental health of families with one or more premature babies. Healthcare professionals who work with these families will also be trained to better serve these families.

Workshops will be provided in more local spaces (e.g. community organizations) to better reach families.
A mental health component (e.g. website, video vignettes) added to the workshop resources to address mental health in the context of child prematurity.
Eligibility for accessing services will be extended to more families (increased age of eligibility to 0-8 years old).

Settings

Community
Clinical
Online

Implementation sites

Québec

Neonatology and prematurity are not well understood by the public.
Parents of premature children are launched into the unknown and are unprepared for the events surrounding a premature birth. Pandemic conditions intensified these difficulties.
Services were previously offered only to families who recently had a child hospitalized.

In the words of the project team members

“We often forget about the parents, sisters, and brothers of premature babies who have to carry on with their lives while the baby is still at the hospital. Our aim is to develop and implement specialized services to support parents and families who are impacted, because mental health and prematurity is also about hope.”