Developing peer support for families bereaved by postpartum psychosis On 23rd June 2024, I led APP’s first training day for bereavement peer support volunteers at the Barberry National Centre for Mental Health in Birmingham. We were joined by five new volunteers who want to use their experiences to help support other families who have lost family…
Would you like to play a key role in improving support for young children bereaved by parental suicide? Losing a parent or carer to suicide during childhood can have a devastating and long-term impact on a young person’s mental health. Research has shown that children who are bereaved by parental suicide when aged between two…
Last week I was back in London for the first time since Covid lockdowns and baby Jay (who is now two and no longer really a baby). I was there to celebrate Luna Foundation’s first birthday at RSA House. The Luna Foundation Luna was established on 17 March 2022 by Anna Wardley. Anna’s father, Ralph,…
Over 2022 I have been project-managing (and doing the majority of the work on) a new website for Action on Postpartum Psychosis (APP). APP is a small charity, struggling after Covid and with the cost of living crisis. They could not afford an expensive agency to work on their new design, structure and content. A…
After a parent dies by suicide I would urge you (if you feel able) to listen to Luna Foundation’s Anna Wardley on Four Thought (BBC Sounds). Anna argues for better support for children who lose a parent to suicide, starting her talk in the dark waters of the English Channel as she attempts to swim…
Samaritans have been building a hub of online safety resources for everyone who might use the internet to seek support or talk about suicide, suicidal feelings and self-harm. The most recent addition is guidance for parents on talking to your child about self-harm and suicide content online. I wrote this for them earlier this year….
Ten years of APP peer support Action on Postpartum Psychosis have been offering life-saving peer support to women and their families since 2012. Over the last ten years, I have delivered their peer supporter training sessions and created new resources for them. Their peer support offering has gone from strength to strength. They now offer…
1915 In 1915, Margaret Llewelyn Davies edited and published ‘Maternity – Letters From Working Women’. This moving collection of letters from members of the Women’s Co-operative Guild details their experiences of pregnancy, miscarriage, childbirth, stillbirth, infant death and parenting. At the end of every letter was listed the family salary and the number of miscarriages,…
In 2017 I developed a content plan and wrote 26 articles for Bupa’s new workplace mental health hub. I used to be a workplace ‘health check’ consultant for Time to Change and I enjoyed using my knowledge and experience of the issues involved to create resources that would help organisations make positive change. All the…
I have just finished researching and developing a series of resources around pregnancy loss and mental health for the Miscarriage Association. Research I did extensive desk research and conducted a survey of the Miscarriage Associations supporters and stakeholders. In one week we received 1716 responses from people who self-identified as having had mental health problems…
The WRISK project is a collaboration between the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (bpas) and Heather Trickey at the School of Social Sciences at Cardiff University. They are aiming to draw on women’s experiences to understand and improve the development and communication of risk messages in pregnancy. They asked me to blog about my experience of…
In 2013 I ran a training session for Action on Postpartum Psychosis on giving peer support online as part of their award-winning peer support programme. I’ve been working with them ever since. I’ve done a further five training sessions, including one when heavily pregnant and another four months after Oaklan was born. Now my maternity leave…
Last week Oaklan and I went on an adventure to London for the launch of the latest version of Mind’s flagship booklet ‘Understanding mental health problems’. I wrote this when I was pregnant and it was great to see it finally published. It’s the first title to be published in the new full colour format –…
I’m really chuffed to be able to share that both Mind and the Miscarriage Association received awards at the British Medical Association Patient Information Awards 2017 for information and that I researched and wrote. The awards aim to ‘encourage excellence in the production and dissemination of accessible, well-designed and clinically balanced patient information’. They look for…