Dr Nicole Milburn
Abstract:
Infancy refers to the period between birth and 3 years and represents as different a developmental period as childhood does to adolescence, or adolescence does to adulthood. Despite this infants are often subsumed into policies and practices designed for children and young people, or worse, treated like appendages of one or both parents without a subjective experience of their own. This symposium will explore the unique needs of infants involved in legal proceedings and demonstrate that specific tailored proceedings, reliable assessment and informed judicial process can have positive outcomes for infants and their families. The ethical dilemmas of the work will be explored and a framework provided from the World Association for Infant Mental Health working group on ethics. The symposium aims to resource participants in providing more targeted and ethical approaches to infants involved in legal proceedings