APP April Newsletter

Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week

Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week (MMHAW) runs from Monday 29th April to Sunday 5th May. APP wants to get as many people involved as possible, getting more people talking about postpartum psychosis (PP) and ensuring anyone affected doesn’t feel alone and knows where they can turn to for help and support. 

In addition to #MaternalMentalHealthAwarenessWeek, organised by the Perinatal Mental Health Partnership, World Maternal Mental Health Day is on Wednesday 1st and Pregnancy & Postpartum Psychosis, PPP Awareness Day is on Friday 3rd. The theme for the full week is ‘Rediscovering You’.

To find out more, join the free 'APP Network' community and follow @ActionOnPP on Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn and - our new - TikTok. Read on to see details of some of the special events we’ve organised in support of the week and how to join our Miles for Mums and Babies challenge for May.

New Insider Guide: Being a parent after Postpartum Psychosis 

We’re delighted to launch our new Insider Guide during Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week (MMHAW). 

‘Being a parent after Postpartum Psychosis’ has been produced with the help of surveys, face to face workshops and an online working group made up of families who have experienced PP. 

The guide shares information and ideas from parents at children’s various ages and stages of development.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to the new guide. It will be available to download from our website here during MMHAW.

Creative Writing – A Lived Experience Workshop with Laura Dockrill

Monday 29th April 12.30pm – 1.30pm

To mark this year’s Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week, we are delighted that Laura Dockrill, What Have I Done? author and Action on Postpartum Psychosis ambassador, is running another session for members of the APP network who have experienced PP. 

Join us for a relaxed creative writing session offering a warm, gentle, no-pressure environment to write for you and your wellbeing as we reflect on the week’s theme of ‘rediscovering you’.

There is no experience required and no need for fancy vocabulary or incredible spelling and grammar skills. This is a chance for your heart and head to do some talking. So, leave that inner-critic and expectation behind. All you need is something to write with and on.

There’s more information and details of how to book this free event here.

Take on a Miles for Mums and Babies challenge for Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week (MMHAW)

To support MMHAW, we’re inviting our supporters to take on a Miles for Mums and Babies challenge.  

Taking part is simple - just pledge to walk, run or cycle and get sponsored to support APP’s work. You could aim to cover 10 miles, 20 miles, 500 miles or any other distance with a special significance for them: each mile reflects the journey mums, babies, partners and families travel to be together, whilst mums receive care in Mother and Baby Units (MBUs).

Thank you to everyone who has signed up already. We’re delighted to have so many people involved, with individuals and teams all over the UK running, walking, swimming, cycling and toddling hundreds of miles to raise awareness and funds.

Get inspired and find out more here or email Fliss at fundraising@app-network.org for more information.  Or register for your free Miles for Mums And Babies fundraising pack here. 

#TeamAPP - our incredible April runners!

This April we have had more runners than ever before taking part in events all across the country - we had 10 fundraisers running on one day alone on the 7th April - Rosie, Lillie, Jenna and Sarah in the London Landmarks Half, James in the Paris Marathon, Mollie and Chris in the Brighton Marathon, Ollie in the Rutland Half and Matt in the Fleetwood 10k!
And just last weekend we had four fantastic runners taking on the London Marathon - Lauren-Nicole, Rebecca, Luke and Lee.

We are so proud of all of our runners - so much time, energy and effort goes into training, preparing and fundraising for these kind of challenges and we are so grateful! 

If you’re feeling inspired and would like to join our amazing #TeamAPP for a future event - we have places in events from 2.5k-100k, so there’s something for everyone! Get in touch with Fliss - fundraising@app-network.org and we’ll find the perfect thing for you.

Join an APP café group during Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week (MMHAW)

Our regional peer support café groups for women and families affected by PP meet monthly and are a mixture of virtual sessions and face to face meet-ups. You can attend whether you are newly recovering or recovered many years ago. They are a social place to chat, support each other and share ideas about improving the future for others affected by PP.

Our Black Country, London and Lancashire & south Cumbria café groups are meeting in Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week. If you are interested in joining these or any of the other APP café groups – in Sussex & Hampshire, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Yorkshire, North East, Wales, Birmingham and London - please fill out this form or email app@app-network.org. New members are always welcome.

We also run a virtual peer group for dads and co-parents on the third Wednesday of every month for people who have supported a partner through PP. The next meeting is on 15th May. The next meeting of our Muslim women’s group is on Monday 6th May. Our UK-wide and grandparents groups meet regularly through the year. If you would like to be on the mailing list for either of these groups, please email app@app-network.org.

You can find the dates of the next meet ups for all our café groups at the bottom of this newsletter and on our website here.

Essential knowledge for preventing maternal suicide webinar *Save the date*

The Alex Baish Memorial 2024 webinar will take place on Wednesday 16th October at 12pm.

This free webinar is open to GPs and other frontline health professionals including midwives, health visitors and antenatal educators.

APP experts, women with lived experience and clinicians will highlight the early signs and symptoms of postpartum psychosis and discuss how GPs can work with perinatal mental health teams to prevent maternal suicides.

More than 2,500 health professionals signed up for last year’s webinar. Of the attendees, 92% rated the training as ‘excellent’; 8% rated it ‘good’ and 100% agreed they would change their practice as a result:

The webinar exceeded my expectations. It is not often that I will watch a webinar that has such a profound emotional impact on me and left me thinking and talking about a topic in the days after (in a positive way).

There are no words that can really sum up how powerful this webinar was. I watched this with a student nurse and it created such a rich conversation. Thanks so much to all involved.

This webinar was so powerful that I think this should be a mandatory training video for all working in perinatal.

Please save the date - 16th October at 12pm. Details of how to book your free place will be available soon. 

WeAre1in5 campaign

Postpartum Support International is highlighting a new campaign to share the stories of women affected by perinatal mental health disorders (PMHDs) from around the world.

During May, the #WeAre1in5 social media campaign aims to bring together PMHD survivor stories from different cities, cultures, religions, and countries to let new mothers know they are not alone.

You can submit your story here. 

Book your place on our health professional training day

Book now for our online training in best practice care in postpartum psychosis on
12th June.  

The one-day online training is suitable for professionals working with pregnant and postnatal women and families. It draws upon cutting-edge research in postpartum psychosis and bipolar disorder and the real experiences of women and families. It will develop confidence in identifying and managing risk, developing pregnancy and postnatal management plans, identifying early symptoms, and providing high quality support to women and families from preconception to recovery.

Feedback from previous courses has been excellent:

I think this training is essential for midwives, health visitors and social workers.

Really brilliant session. Balanced, informed, inspiring, emotional. So raw and real and yet very professional and contained. Best training I've attended in a very long time.

Tickets are now available at the early bird special for Maternal Mental Health Awareness week: £165 if you book before 5th May.

Tickets cost £195 for places booked after 5th May. Find out more and book here.  

If you have any questions or would like to join our mailing list to hear more about AP’s training please email: training@app-network.org.

BBC Radio 4 appeal

Thank you to everyone who supported our recent BBC Radio 4 appeal. We were blown away by the reaction - so many people shared our social media posts and pictures of our electronic billboards. The billboard campaign was spread over four weeks with a total of 74 large format roadside screens delivering more than 16 million impressions. We’re very grateful to JCDecaux for providing us with the digital spaces free of charge as part of their Community Channel scheme, and to Mother London for creating the designs for us

Thank you too to our ambassador Laura Dockrill for doing such a wonderful job of presenting the appeal on 24th March. The money - and awareness - raised will make a huge difference to the work we can do supporting mums and families affected by PP.  

Northern Ireland Mother and Baby Unit campaign update

Things are heading in the right direction for a Mother and Baby Unit (MBU) in Northern Ireland. The Belfast Trust is still working up its business plan, but in the meantime we’re working to make sure the Northern Ireland Assembly allocates the money to it.

Along with the Maternal Mental Health Alliance and Mas (Maternal advocacy service), who APP has done a lot of campaigning with), we attended the All Party Group on Women’s Health, a cross-party group of MLAs and their advisors. Laura, a PP survivor, with experience of being on an acute ward when she should have been in an MBU spoke powerfully about the many reasons for an MBU, as well as MMHA and Mas presentations. The group chair will write to the Health Minister Robin Swann urging him to find funding for an MBU, and will also put questions to him in the Assembly.

Our NI peer support group member Teresa also met with her MLA Nicola Brogan to talk about the need for an MBU, and Nicola will also write to Robin Swann with a view to a meeting. If other women or family members in Northern Ireland would like to get involved, please email us. 

The Cord - a new play by Bijan Sheibani

Bijan Sheibani’s new play, The Cord, explores the intergenerational impact of postpartum psychosis - of becoming a father with knowledge of your own mother’s PP many years before.

Bijan - an award-winning director (Netflix’s One Day, The Arrival, Morning Song) - worked with APP to research the experiences of women who had become grandparents after PP, and of adult children whose mums had experienced PP. You can read a review of the play here.  

Free tickets on Wednesday 1st May at London’s Bush Theatre (on a first-come-first-served basis) are available to members of the APP network. The performance will be followed by a Q&A session with writer/director Bijan Sheibani, APP Chief Executive, Dr Jess Heron and APP Training Coordinator, Dr Sally Wilson. Email the Peer Support Coordinators for tickets: app@app-network.org. The play is being staged on further dates up to 25th May. There are £10 tickets available to APP. Email app@app-network.org for a promotional code. 

Who is the play suitable for: Having watched the play, we don’t feel this is a good watch for those newly recovering from PP, or anyone who has experienced PP and not yet a grandparent. It is set at a time when there was much more stigma and secrecy around PP. It will be of interest to grandparents who had PP many years ago. Similarly, it will be thought-provoking for the adult children of people who have had PP and may reflect - or be in stark contrast - to their own experiences of becoming a parent. Postpartum psychosis is not specifically mentioned, just alluded to. It is beautifully written and choreographed and will be of interest to academics and professionals with an interest in parenthood, relationships, and the mental health of fathers in particular. 

We are recruiting in the Birmingham area

APP is recruiting casual Peer Support Worker(s) to join our innovative collaborative project with Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Foundation Trust providing peer support to inpatients at Birmingham Mother and Baby Unit (MBU). There will also be opportunities to work in the community both in Birmingham and Solihull and the wider West Midlands region.

We’re looking for someone with experience of postpartum psychosis to support women, one-to-one and through small group activities at the MBU. The role includes talking to partners and families of women during the acute illness phase, signposting to APP’s online support, community forum, and information. Peer support workers also help to run monthly café groups in the Birmingham area and various locations around the West Midlands region.  

Full details of how to apply for the role are on our website. The closing date is midnight on Sunday 26th May.

Give us your feedback on APP’s NHS partnership projects

We know that meeting and talking to others with experience of postpartum psychosis (PP) is incredibly important in recovering and coming to terms with the experience.

APP has peer support facilitators and volunteer teams based within some NHS services and in Mother and Baby Units (MBUs) to help us provide peer support. We’re looking for feedback about our NHS partnership projects. If you have met an APP peer supporter based in an MBU, please tell us about it. Perhaps you attended a tea and talk session, or craft activity, like the one pictured above at Ribblemere MBU, or you have attended a café group linked to the NHS project. Please follow the project links to give us feedback:

• Lancashire & Cumbria (in partnership with Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust)
• Birmingham & Solihull (in partnership with Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust)
• Black Country (in partnership with Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust)
• Manchester (in partnership with Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust)

Big Give Kind2Mind campaign

The chance to double your donation via the Big Give Kind2Mind campaign is back next month! Between 14th and 28th May, any donations made via our Big Give Kind2Mind Campaign page will be doubled, at no additional cost to the donor or to us.  So if you give £10, APP will receive £20 - you give £50, we'll receive £100, and so on.

Our focus for the campaign this year is on our partner and grandparent peer support services. We know that when family members who have been affected by PP are supported they feel less isolated and become part of an active, engaged community. Peer support aids recovery, improving feelings of hope, normalising experiences and increasing confidence. Helping family members understand PP and offering them the right support improves outcomes for the whole family.

During a Big Give campaign is a brilliant time to host a Big Bake event, as whatever you make at your event will be worth twice as much.  Or if you have an APP collection pot at home, some spare change or just want to support our work, please do consider donating during that fortnight and double your impact! 

New short film about postpartum psychosis: casting call for female lead

A Quiet Woman is a new short film about a mixed race couple dealing with postpartum psychosis after the birth of their first baby. 

The film’s director is looking for an actress from APP’s community who has experienced PP to play Emily.

Filming will take place in mid November in south east England around Greater London. There will be two days of rehearsal followed by three days of filming.

The character’s age is 25-35. No prior acting experience is needed.

If you’re interested in applying please email Zah Ahmad.

Fabulous fundraisers

With spring in the air, it feels like running season definitely arrived! APP was lucky enough to have 14 runners taking on challenges for us last weekend, taking part in events from Paris to London to Fleetwood and covering more than 270 km between them.

A huge thank you to all of them.

Lauren-Nicola, Lee (pictured above at mile 23 with APP Fundraiser Fliss, far right), Luke and Rebecca all took on the London Marathon, lining up alongside 40,000 other runners as part of this world-famous event. You can read more about why they took on the challenge on our website here.

All of this year’s secured their own places through the general public ballot. We're so grateful to all of them for choosing to support us in this way. 

Mollie, Chris and Gen ran the Brighton Marathon; James was APP’s first-ever Paris Marathon runner; Rosie & Lillie, Sarah and Jenna all ran the London Landmarks Half Marathon, Ollie ran the Rutland Half and Matt took part in the Fleetwood 10k.  

Ruth Stacey hosted a launch event for her new book, Everyone Is Here To Help, on 24th April. Ruth experienced postpartum psychosis in 2019 and spent time recovering at a Mother and Baby Unit. The book tells the story of illness and recovery and a small percentage of the sales will be donated to APP. 

If you’re feeling inspired by all of these incredible fundraisers and fancy taking on your own  challenge for APP, we have lots of ideas here.

Nominate APP for a Movement for Good Award

It takes less than one minute and APP could win £5,000! 

To nominate APP for a Movement for Good award please use this link and share with friends and family. Nominations close this Friday (26th April). Thank you!

Dates for your diary

• APP UK-wide virtual café group meet up, Thursday 25th April 
• APP Manchester face to face café group meet up in Manchester, Friday 26th April
• Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week, Monday 29th April – Sunday 5th May
• Creative Writing – A Lived Experience Workshop with Laura Dockrill, Monday 29th April 12.30pm. Book here.
• APP North East face to face café group meet up in Newcastle, Monday 29th April
• APP Black Country face to face café group meet up in Walsall, Tuesday 30th April
• APP London virtual café group meet up, Tuesday 30th April
• World Maternal Mental Health Day, Wednesday 1st May: www.wmmhday.postpartum.net
• APP Lancashire and south Cumbria face to face café group meet up in Blackburn, Friday 3rd May
• International Day Of The Midwife, Sunday 5th May: www.rcm.org.uk
• APP Muslim women’s virtual café group meet up in Lancaster, Monday 6th May
• APP Lancashire and south Cumbria face to face café group meet up in Lancaster, Wednesday 8th May
• APP Lancashire and south Cumbria face to face café group meet up in Blackpool, Friday 10th May
• APP Lancashire and south Cumbria virtual café group meet up, Monday 13th May
• APP Wales virtual café group meet up, Tuesday 14th May
• APP Black Country face to face café group meet up in Walsall, Wednesday 15th May
• APP dads and co-parents virtual café group meet up, Wednesday 15th May
• APP Northern Ireland virtual café group meet up, Thursday 16th May
• APP Manchester face to face café group, Friday 17th May, 10.30-12.30pm
• APP Lancashire and south Cumbria face to face café group meet up in Preston, Friday 17th May
• Mental Health Awareness Week, Monday 13th – Sunday 19th May: www.mentalhealth.org.uk
• APP Scotland virtual café group meet up, Monday 20th May
• APP London virtual café group meet up, Tuesday 21st May
• APP Sussex and Hampshire virtual café group meet up, Wednesday 22nd May
• APP Birmingham face to face café group meet up, Wednesday 22nd May
• Global Day of Parents, Sunday 1st June
• APP Yorkshire virtual café group meet up, Tuesday 4th June

Contact information for all APP café groups is available here.

Events and conferences

Coventry and Warwickshire Perinatal Mental Health Awareness Walk, Sunday 5th May

Free entry to this family fun day at Mill Gardens, Leamington Spa between 11am and 4pm. The walk will take place at 1pm. All welcome.

The 9th Annual Birth Trauma Summit, Tuesday 14th and Wednesday 15th May

Make Birth Better’s annual summit will feature 20 speakers across two afternoons. More information and ticket options here.

Perinatal Peer Support - lunchtime seminar, Tuesday 21st May

First in a series of lunchtime seminars run by Lifeboat Perinatal Mental Health CIC. This 12.30 - 1.30pm session focuses on: ‘Roles, routines and identity - an occupational perspective on perinatal mental health support. Tickets are free. Book here. 

Perinatal Peer Support - lunchtime seminar, Monday 24th June

Second in a series of lunchtime seminars run by Lifeboat Perinatal Mental Health CIC. This 12.30 - 1.30pm session focuses on: ‘Anxiety management for perinatal mental health peer support. Tickets are £10. Book here.  

Perinatal Peer Support - lunchtime seminar, Tuesday 16th July

Third in a series of lunchtime seminars run by Lifeboat Perinatal Mental Health CIC. This 12.30 - 1.30pm session focuses on: ‘Understanding medication for perinatal mental health.’ Tickets are £10. Book here. 

Suicide Bereavement UK’s 12th International Conference, Thursday 26th September

Hybrid event – face to face or live stream ticket options available. More details here.

If you would like to advertise your event here, please get in touch: app@app-network.org.