Attachment and Biobehavioural Catch-Up - Accoras

Contact our ABC team:
abc@accoras.org.au

Giving parents the tools and confidence to support their baby’s development

The Accoras Attachment & Biobehavioral Catch-up (ABC) service is a free parent coaching program that is about supporting positive infant mental health.

ABC is for parents of infants aged 6 months to 2 years who are vulnerable or going through a difficult time and live in the Brisbane South East or Gold Coast region.

How ABC works

In the Accoras ABC program, a trained parent coach will work with the parent over 10 sessions in their home. We tailor our sessions to suit the needs of each parent and their infant through a range of activities, discussions, examples and role plays and in the moment interactions, so each session is different.  

The sessions are all about:

  • Nurturing the parent-child relationship with evidence-based intervention - meaning it has been proven to make a difference! 

  • Helping the parent re-interpret their baby’s emotions and behavioral signals - we help parents understand what their baby is trying to express or say.

  • Supporting healthy brain development for the child, to reduce their risks of long-term or future mental health concerns.

  • Creating a healthy relationship between the child and parent.

Make a referral

We welcome referrals from other service providers and directly from families. Families must be willing to engage with our service and the more engaged they are, the better the results. We prioritise families who are particularly vulnerable, and those from priority cultural and social backgrounds.

Click the buttons to the left to access our referral form or for any other questions, please email our team directly at abc@accoras.org.au.

Why ABC

An infant is 100% reliant on their parent or caregiver. Parenting can be incredibly difficult, especially for those that are vulnerable or going through a difficult time.  

Research has shown that infants who experience adversity, stress or trauma are more likely to have a mental illness later in life. ABC is a responsive early intervention program that aims to reduce this risk by working closely with parents and carers.

At Accoras we were proud to introduce ABC to Queensland in January 2021. We have self-funded ABC with the support of the Queensland Mental Health Commission and a cross-sectoral advisory group made up of:

  • The Department of Children, Youth Justice and Multicultural Affairs;

  • The Queensland Family and Child Commission;

  • The Australian Association for Infant Mental Health;

  • The Queensland Transcultural Mental Health Centre;

  • The Queensland Centre for Perinatal and Infant Mental Health; and

  • Enable Health Consulting.

 

UNDERSTANDING INFANT MENTAL HEALTH