20th February 2026
This iHV Voices blog highlights the value of international connections between the UK and Australia to support learning and best practice in our work to promote perinatal and infant mental health. We thank Valerie Aylesbury, Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Clinician, Statewide, Child and Family Health Services, Sailsbury, Women’s Health Network, SA Health, Government of South Australia, for her generous contributions, partnership and support.
From left: Valerie Aylesbury, Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Clinician; Vicky Gilroy (iHV); Ann Wiseman, Clinical Practice Director
We work in the world where promoting relationships and connections are essential. These are both key concepts of infant mental health when promoting and understanding developmental outcomes for infants. To truly value relationships and connections, we need to pay attention to them in our own workplace – in our interactions with our teams and our wider networks from both a national and international perspective.
In 2024, at the Maternal, Child and Family Health Nurse Australia (MCaFHNA) conference in Brisbane, I met the amazing Alison Morton OBE and CEO of the iHV. I heard about the work of the Institute of Health Visiting (iHV) in the UK. Alison brought infant mental health to the forefront of the conference. We had wonderful conversations and, when I was accepted as a PhD candidate in 2025, I reached out and sought connections to support my thinking, my research, and my workplace (Child and Family Health Services (CaFHS) South Australia). This is when I met another amazing woman, Vicky Gilroy, Director of Innovation and Research at the iHV, and we began an international relationship through MS Teams, thinking about how to promote infant mental health in the workforce supporting mothers, infants and families in South Australia. We shared constraints and tensions of training staff within expectations and the reality of increased workloads.
The stars aligned when Vicky shared her holiday plans for Australia at Christmas, to be with her husband and daughters in Sydney. As a member of the South Australian (SA) branch of the Australian Association of Infant Mental Health (AAIMH), a not-for-profit organisation with strong goals including education, promotion and advocacy in Infant Mental Health (IMH), a successful application was made to the SA AAIMH committee to support Vicky travelling to SA from Sydney, to meet and share learning from the iHV experiences of PIMH with SA colleagues.
A very productive two-day programme was organised including a targeted meeting with CaFHS Leadership. During the meeting, Vicky was able to share learning from the iHV Perinatal and Infant Mental Health (PIMH) Champions programme evaluation and consider with colleagues how a Champions model could be introduced into CaFHS in the future. Following on from the work of the iHV in England (supported by the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood), CaFHS staff are also conducting a project using the ADBB (Alarm Distress Baby Scale), to support our work in infant mental health in Australia. During our meeting, we explored the initial findings from the ADBB studies in the UK and shared next steps [See photo of meeting with CaFHS Torrens House inpatient service staff].
Vicky Gilroy (iHV) meeting with CaFHS Torrens House inpatient service staff
During the visit the following other connections were made:
- Meeting with Patricia O’Rourke who developed the ‘Maternal Looking Guide’ and my PhD supervisor, Dr. Jon Juredini, who I am working with to investigate the use of early relational tools impacting on Midwifery practice.
- Meeting with “Relationships Australia” team working in a high-risk infant programme, supporting complex and vulnerable families. Meeting with Aboriginal women and leaders, yarning to explore and understand the historical and cultural context of their work in “Family Group Conferencing”.
- Recording of a Podcast to be shared as an ongoing resource for both Australia and UK on the PIMH evaluation with SA President AAIMH with her workplace “Emerging Minds”.
- Meeting with Tia-Skye Perritt who is a recent recipient of a SA Premiers Scholarship. This ensures an ongoing relationship, as Tia will be travelling to the UK later in 2026 to investigate further the application and embedding of the Champions Program into practice.
Outcomes following the visit included:
- The formation of CaFHS Leadership group to embed the Champions Framework Working Group – first meeting 14 January 2026.
- Torrens House staff’s increased interest in using the ADBB in their clinical practice.
- Connections between Patricia and Vicky looking to investigate future possibilities for “Maternal Looking Guide” in clinical practice.
- The Relationships Australia team thinking about relational tools which may be useful in understanding and documenting the experience of the infants they support.
- The Emerging Minds podcast as an ongoing resource to be available for both AAIMH in Australia and iHV in the UK.
- Vicky and her team to support Tia-Skye Perrett’s Premier’s Scholarship study Tour of the UK for further learning.
The importance of building relationships and connections across all our professional interactions was amplified through this international visit.
“It was a privilege to have the opportunity to engage with passionate and like-minded colleagues during my visit to South Australia. The importance of sharing learning and ideas to support the provision of high-quality relational care to babies, children and their families was a take-home message for me personally. I look forward to continuing our collaboration.”
Vicky Gilroy, iHV Director of Innovation and Research
