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 is over, I’m doing some more long-term projects with them. I’m developing a new Insider Guide ‘Being a Parent after Postpartum Psychosis’. As part of this guide, we hope to create some resources to help parents talk to their children about their experience. We will publish the resources to coincide with the general release of the film Irene’s Ghost (a documentary I have been lucky enough to see already and very much recommend).
We started with a survey. This helped to give us a sense of people’s experiences and the need for the products. I used the survey responses to develop two workshops which I ran this weekend in Birmingham.
We discussed parenting experiences and needs at various ages and stages of recovery. We also thought about what different-aged children might need to know – and looked at some existing resources written to help talk to children about various mental health problems.
Working with women and their partners is vital. Experiences of PP and recovery are so varied. So are experiences of parenting and the needs of individual children. We are certainly not going to be telling people what to do or how to parent. We hope to produce something that recognises possible difficulties – and offers support, suggestions and signposting to help address them.
I hope to continue to co-create these resources. I have set up a private working group online (using Ning) where volunteers will be able to offer comments and suggestions on my outline and drafts. It’s amazing how many people have signed up. APP are really lucky to have a group of such passionate, thoughtful and dedicated volunteers working for them and for women experiencing PP right now.