Family Welfare Association (Southwark)
Key Facts
Location
Project Criteria
Contact
Carolyn Martin
Email
Project funding
£85,000
Funding round
The service is aimed at socially excluded women in Southwark who are particularly vulnerable during their pregnancy. We will provide intensive support throughout their pregnancy and the first year of their child's life to improve the women's mental health, enable them to be part of a local peer support network and improve the outcomes for their children.
The target group includes:
- women who have an existing diagnosed mental health problem
- women who have been identified as vulnerable to postnatal depression
- teenage mothers with identified risk factors
- refugee and asylum seeker mothers
- fathers and partners and other family members of the above will be included in the work
Service provision:
- assessment of families needs at home
- regular liaison with hospital staff in the ante and postnatal wards, SCBU and MAPPIM (perinatal mental health) providing a link between hospital and community services
- organisation and delivery of the Newpin antenatal volunteer befriender training
- home visits by matched befriender for parents during the antenatal and postnatal period to offer practical and emotional support in order to reduce stress
- weekly drop in peer support group for parents at the Southwark FWA Newpin Centre
- specific group for teenage parents will be developed in consultation with young people themselves
- workshops covering topics such as breastfeeding, effects of smoking, the emotional needs of a young baby, feelings around becoming a parent
- baby massage sessions and other groups to promote bonding and secure attachment
- volunteers matched with new referrals