On the 9th April, Dr Jess Heron, APP Director and Dr Sally Wilson, APP Training Coordinator, presented at the Midlands Maternity and Midwifery Festival at Leicester football club. They spoke to a packed conference hall of midwives, including student midwives about an evaluation of the 1-day workforce training that APP offer.

This series of conferences run across the UK and are a great platform for raising awareness of postpartum psychosis amongst midwives and other health professionals, which is one of APP's aims for 2019.

APP want to help health professionals to recognise early signs and symptoms, promote the importance of timely treatment, and talk about recovery and support needs for women and their families affected by postpartum psychosis. We are campaigning this year for compulsory training in perinatal mental health, including Postpartum Psychosis for midwives.

Training in Postpartum Psychosis: Evaluation & Lessons - Dr Jessica Heron and Dr Sally Wilson from Narrowcast Media Group on Vimeo.

Can you help us? Future Midwife standards consultation

The Nursing & Midwifery Council have recently announced a consultation on the 'Future Midwife: Standards of Proficiency for Midwives'. We are delighted that Postpartum Psychosis has been specifically included as a core learning topic for midwives. We would like to make sure it stays included as these standards are refined and consulted upon. If you have experienced PP and would like to make comments, or are a midwife and would like to state how important it is that Postpartum Psychosis is in core midwife standards.

Please respond to the consultation by the 9th May 2019 via here or, please get in touch with Sally if you would like to give any feedback for APP's response. If you have have comments, quotes and stories that you could share with us about your midwifery care, these are really useful in helping to campaign.

APP will be responding to make sure postpartum psychosis and training in PP for midwives remains a focus in these standards.

APP was delighted to be awarded a grant from Mind and Agenda’s Women Side by Side Programme for a one-year project in Aneurin Bevan University Health Board area of South Wales. The South Wales ActiononPP project will help us to:

• Set up a monthly face-to-face peer support group in the Aneurin Bevan Health Board region, but open to women from across South Wales
• Train and support a group of South Wales peer support volunteers
• Network with other agencies and develop methods of engaging and supporting women with PP, particularly women experiencing multiple disadvantage.
• Translate our patient information guides into Welsh.
• Raise awareness of PP in the region, amongst health professionals and in the media.
• Support women who are recently diagnosed and recovering, women at risk of developing PP and women who may have experienced PP many years ago but who are still experiencing the effects

We hope that through this project we can build and support an active community of volunteers in the region to support women and families affected by PP and to work towards real change in how PP is understood and treated in the region. Alongside this grant, we will be looking for opportunities to train health professionals throughout Wales and campaign for change, including for a mother and baby unit.

APP will be looking for two people to work with us (part-time) on this project, if you’d like to find out more about the project, or to be notified when we advertise the roles, please email us.

On Saturday 24th November APP hosted a day for 20 of our volunteers in the beautiful venue of Winterbourne House and Gardens in Birmingham. The day was generously funded by the Rosa Woman 2 Woman Fund. It was a special day for everyone who attended, and those of us who facilitated the day.

Continue reading APP's Volunteer day at Winterbourne House! →

"On the 29th of October I joined the APP team as a peer support facilitator for the Lancashire and South Cumbria region. This coincided with the open day of the new Chorley MBU, Ribblemere.

Continue reading Linda joins APP as Peer Support Facilitator for Lancashire & South Cumbria! →

Irene’s Ghost, a film by Iain Cunningham, premiered at the Curzon , Mayfair on Saturday 13th Oct, at the British Film Institute’s London Film Festival 2018.

Some of APP's staff and volunteers were able to attend the premier on the weekend and here's what Heather Heron, APP Fundraising Volunteer, had to say:

Continue reading Unmissable: 'Irene's Ghost' at the BFI Film Festival 2018! →

We were very sad to say goodbye to APP’s Treasurer and Trustee, Sue Blamire, who retired at the end of March 2018 after 8 years. Staff and Trustees had a whip-round for a thank you present.

Continue reading Thank you to APP's Treasurer and Trustee Sue Blamire →

After 6 years in the making, it’s a wrap for Iain Cunningham’s film Irene’s Ghost, which is premiering at the BFI London Film Festival this Autumn! Thank you to all the APP experts and volunteers who worked with Iain when he was researching his film, and to the many APP members who were filmed during Iain’s research.

Continue reading Irene's Ghost premiere's at the BFI London Film Festival! →

Postpartum Psychosis has, for many years, been shrouded in shame and fear, silencing the women and families who have suffered it. This silence has an impact that reverberates through our community.

Continue reading MIND READING: The Power of Personal Story →

APP Director, Dr Jess Heron, and APP Wales Volunteers Sally Wilson, Sarah Dearden, Charlotte Harding & Barbara Cunningham attended the launch of the NSPCC Cymru / Wales report Bumps to Babies: Perinatal Mental Health in Wales. The excellent report, written by Sarah Witcombe-Hayes and supported by NSPCC, National Centre for Mental Health (NCMH), Mind Cymru, Mental Health Foundation and Maternal Mental Health Everyone’s Business Campaign, examines the experience of women who suffer pre and postnatal illness in Wales. It makes a number of recommendations, adding weight to the findings in the report by the Welsh Assembly’s Children, Young People and Education Committee (Perinatal Mental Health in Wales, October 2017 ).

Continue reading APP at the Wales PMH launch! →

APP is seeking a part-time peer support facilitator with lived experience of postpartum psychosis to support women in the new mother and baby unit in Chorley, and in the community in Lancashire and South Cumbria.

The Peer Support Facilitator position will be home-based  (with time in Ribblemere Mother & Baby Unit, Chorley and travel around the Lancashire and Cumbria regions), part-time (2.5 days a week) for a 24 month fixed term contract, with possible extension for a further 3 years.

Continue reading APP seeks Peer Support Facilitator for Lancashire & Cumbria! →