Marte Meo Counselling given to African caregivers of institutionalised infants a three-case study

ABSTRACT

Background: Studies from Western countries state that video interaction guidance programmes can support caregiver sensitivity in infant-caregiver dyads. Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate if Marte Meo, which is such a programme, could contribute to increasing emotional and social support towards motherless infants at an institution for motherless infants in rural Africa. Method: Three caregivers participated in five Marte Meo Counselling sessions. The first guidance naïve film and the last film were analysed qualitatively and quantitatively and organised according to two supportive categories: 1) caregiver responds to infants’ initiative, 2) caregiver takes initiative to supportive interaction, and two non-supportive: 3) caregiver behaves in an intrusive manner and 4) caregiver does not respond to the infants’ initiative. Results: After receiving Marte Meo Counselling, all three caregivers showed impressive augmentation of awareness and sensitivity in their care towards the infants’ emotional and social needs. Conclusion: We found indications that professional caregivers of institutionalised infants in an African country can profit on Marte Meo Counselling, showing positive effects on augmenting caregivers’ sensitivity towards the infants, and thereby meet the infants’ need of emotional and social support.

KEYWORDS:

• Cross-cultural studies
• emotional
• intervention
• social interaction
• qualitative methods

Acknowledgments

First, we are deeply grateful to the caregivers at CCU for their participation and to the administration and other staff at Haydom Lutheran Hospital that facilitated the work. We especially want to thank Health Administrator Joseph Ndukusi for his sharing of knowledge and support, and Marte Meo-therapists Rolf Rohde and Anne Britt Willumsen for their careful counselling. We thank the Department for Child and Adolescent Mental Health at Sorlandet Hospital for their funding and encouragement.

Authorship declaration

KV, AH and AF participated in the analysis. VZD was Internal Principal Investigator for the project. KV drafted the paper. All authors took part in finalising the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.