In the Seattle Times Mental Health Perspectives Column, Perigee Fund Founder Lisa Mennet reflects on her early experiences as a family therapist and how they influenced her understanding of infant and early childhood mental health. Lisa explains the benefit of dyadic care, a form of treatment that focuses on the mental health of the parent-child relationship, and the ways in which future mental health, school outcomes, family dynamics, and long-term health systems costs are improved when mental health is supported during the perinatal period and early childhood.

“When we invest in maternal and infant mental health, we aren’t just caring for individual families, we are shaping the foundation of our collective future.”