Closer to home: Practitioners’ views about best practice in delivering mental health care at home for children, young people and families.

<b>Background:</b> Home visitation has emerged as a promising prevention strategy for the escalation of difficulties. Previous research into practitioners experience of home visiting has been conducted in various populations, however limited in terms of providing mental health care to children, young people and their families at the home. There are no best practice guidelines for home visiting with this population. The present study aimed to explore, from the perspective of practitioners within the Family Intervention Team working in Gwent, South Wales, the opportunities that offering a service in people’s contexts provides, with the aim of developing our understanding of best practice in this context. <b>Method</b>: A thematic analysis approach was utilised on semi-structured interviews conducted with 8 practitioners. <b>Results: </b>Three themes were identified: General Opportunities, Best Practice and Therapeutic relationships and emotion, with sub-themes relating to settling power imbalances, considerations for scaffolding the intervention and the opportunities that arise from the context. <b>Discussion and conclusion: </b>These findings are discussed in relation to prudent health care, attending to power, threat and safety as well as contextual richness. Best practice considerations and future research suggestions are made.