Perinatal Mental Health discussed by women

Perinatal Mental Health discussed by women

Kashmir Youth Project (KYP) in conjunction with Greater Manchester and Eastern Cheshire Strategic Clinical Networks delivered a Perinatal Mental Health workshop which was well attended by 60 women from across the Rochdale Borough on Monday 24 April.

Perinatal mental health refers to a woman's mental health during pregnancy and the first year after birth.

The workshop’s aims were to raise awareness of perinatal mental health and identify the issues affecting BAME women accessing the service.

There was great input from women who discussed issues affecting them and came up with solutions to improve access for BAME communities to perinatal mental health services.

The main issues were community taboos and stigma around mental health and professional support is needed at a grass roots level to address these issues.

A range of service providers from Healthy Minds Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust, Rochdale and District MIND and Living Well Rochdale Health Trainers were on hand to answer questions and provide information to the women.

Kathryn Saunderson, Joint Mental Health Programme Manager, Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale Clinical Commissioning Group delivered a presentation on how to access support locally and shared details of the new Thinking Ahead service which was launched on the 2 May.

Councillor Sameena Zaheer said: “It was a fantastic workshop with a great turnout, we need more BAME women to attend such workshops to raise awareness and to learn how to access perinatal mental health services.”

KYP were very pleased with the response from the communities.

Zulf Ahmed, the CEO said: “It is really encouraging that individuals have taken the time and effort to share their experiences for the benefit of improving services for others. This is the third workshop we have delivered across Greater Manchester with the final one taking place in the Tameside locality.”