About 15 per cent of childbearing women experience poor mental health according to the Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Promotion and Prevention Plan 2023-2027.

These findings prompted the Armadale West EYP community plan to include a requirement to expand the ability of local services to provide antenatal and postnatal support and maternal mental health training to better support local women and families.

As a first step, the Armadale West EYP Health team teamed up with the Statewide Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Program (SPIMHP) to explore ways to increase antenatal and postnatal support within and across local community services.

The SPIMHP Mental Health Nurse Educator offered to provide professional development to local service providers who work directly with pregnant women and new parents.

A workshop was then developed to increase knowledge about how to identify anxiety and depression in pregnancy and the postnatal period, how to support maternal mental wellbeing, key places to access information and where to find support locally.

Twenty service providers attended the workshop, from local family connectors, social workers, school staff and child health nurses to child protection workers.

A post-workshop survey was positive, with all attendees agreeing or strongly agreeing that they gained a better understanding of perinatal mental health, with 93 per cent feeling more confident to offer support to mums and families who may be experiencing mental health challenges in the perinatal period.

“Thanks for organising an excellent guest speaker, EYP,” one attendee said, while another said, “Very well presented and informative.”

A number of themes emerged for how the service providers will change their practises in the Armadale West area, including:

  • providing more resources and services for parents
  • providing more person-centred care
  • having more awareness of the impact of mental health in the perinatal period
  • providing more support for dads and young parents.

Providing perinatal mental health training will continue to be a priority for the Armadale West EYP team in 2024, which will also be investigating how to improve access to services locally, including wrap-around services and improving support for new dads.

Participating organisations

  • Early Years Partnership – Health team
  • Statewide Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Program
  • Westfield Park Child and Parent Centre

Acknowledgement of Country

We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we meet, work and live, and recognise their continuing connection and care to land, water and community. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging.