We hope you enjoyed reading APP's annual festive letter this year.
2024 has been very busy and we just didn't have enough space in our letter to include all our highlights from the year.
We've created this space so you can read more about everything we've been up to, and the impact we've had.
Peer Support
- 1062 women, partners and grandparents supported.
- 683 individuals supported by a peer in hospital, at home, and online.
- 148 APP café groups - including regional meet ups plus groups for grandparents, partners, LGBTQI+ families, Muslim women and Bipolar management as well as book club and creative sessions.
- 3727 registered users of our peer support forum, with on average 260 users every month.
- We've launched a new bereavement support service and trained five new bereavement peer support volunteers.
Peer support survey:
Our 2024 peer support survey found that since finding APP:
- 99% of those who accessed APP peer support felt more supported.
- 95% felt less isolated.
- 96% felt more informed about PP.
- 91% felt less negative about PP.
- 93% felt more hopeful about the future.
- 96% felt that APP had helped, or was helping, them to recover.
- 91% felt more able to talk about their PP with family, friends and health. professionals.
- 48% said they might not be alive if they had not found APP's peer support services.
"It is so nice to feel a part of a community, to know others have been through a version of what you have, it validates the whole thing. I feel less alone knowing that I'm not the only one to have had this extremely scary experience."
Training
- 3891 health professionals booked our 2024 Alex Baish Memorial Lecture on 'Essential knowledge for preventing maternal suicide'.
- Since 2014, 22,000 health professionals have heard an APP lived experience speaker.
- Since 2017, 500 health professionals have attended APP’s full day training.
Information
- Our new guide “Being a parent after PP” launched. We now have four Insider Guides and three are available in other languages, including Arabic, Bengali, Polish, Slovak and Urdu.
- There were more than 9,000 views of our 3-minute video ‘How To Talk To Expectant Parents About Postpartum Psychosis’ with Midwife Marley, highlighting our free training toolkit for antenatal educators.
- 192 antenatal education toolkits posted to UK maternity hospitals.
Awareness raising
- 16 million people saw our nationwide billboard campaign.
- 39 stories supported in the press, on tv and radio.
- More than 600,000 reached with content and information on our social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, X and TikTok.
- Significant activity and reach during Maternal Mental Health Week in May including media coverage on ITV news, BBC Radio 4, Belfast Live, The Daily Mail, Edinburgh Live and Women's Health.
Fundraising
- Over £120,000 has been raised through grassroots fundraising events, challenges, activities and donations.
- 200 individuals have taken on a challenge, organised an event or held a fundraiser for us this year - thank you!
- £27,500 was raised through our first ever national BBC Radio 4 appeal.
Jenni's Story - thank you to Jenni for sharing her story with us. You can read more about her experience of PP here.
Donate to our festive campaign - this year we are raising funds to develop specialist resources for those struggling with legal and rights-based issues after PP. In our 2023 peer support survey, respondents shared difficulties they've experienced after PP with us. Nearly half (49%) faced issues around returning to work. Over a third (36%) had difficulties with reinstatement of their full driving licence, either temporarily or permanently, and the same number had problems at work. 31% had difficulties with accessing insurances, and 28% with benefits entitlements. This new service could be life changing for many families. All donations made between 3rd and 10th December will be DOUBLED thanks to a generous supporter and The Big Give. Click here to donate and ensure your donation has double the impact. Thank you!
Become a regular donor - regular monthly donations really make a big difference to the work we do supporting mums and families affected by postpartum psychosis, and allow us to plan and budget ahead.
Take on a challenge for APP - from 4k fun runs to ultramarathons, bungee jumps, skydives and everything in between - there's something for everyone! More info here about our 2025 challenges.
Leave a gift to APP in your Will - find out more about how you can support APP long into the future by including a gift in your Will.
Join us for our inaugural APP Adventure in June 2025
We are very excited to launch our first ever national team challenge event - we'll be hiking Mam Tor in the Peak District next June and we'd love for you to join us for this exciting new event.
Find out more and register here.
Thank you for all your support for APP in 2024.