APP June 2025 Newsletter
Join our Northern Ireland Mother and Baby Unit campaign
There’s been an incredibly powerful response to the BBC Spotlight programme ‘Mums in Crisis’ which investigates perinatal mental health care in Northern Ireland. The programme explained just how urgently a Mother and Baby Unit (MBU) is needed to save lives and prevent trauma.
Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK without a Mother and Baby Unit and APP is campaigning for this to change.
Our Northern Ireland media consultant, Liz Morrison, worked with programme producers, supporting them to meet members of our Northern Ireland café group, and others from the APP team. Cafe group member, Shelley bravely tells her story in the programme along with others with lived experience of severe postnatal mental illness, the family of Orlaith Quinn, perinatal mental health professionals from NI and from Jasmine Lodge MBU in Exeter. Shelley also shared her story with BBC News Online and Liz talked to BBC Radio Ulster.
We are so grateful to the production team and everyone who took part in the programme for helping to raise awareness of the issue. We must continue to keep the pressure up to ensure the promised MBU is delivered.
Dr Jess Heron, Chief Executive of Action on Postpartum Psychosis said:
It’s been 16 years since Michelle O’Neil and the Stormont Health Committee agreed that Northern Ireland needs a Mother and Baby Unit, but only now are we seeing real plans for this to progress. The Minister has told the Assembly he hopes to greenlight it this calendar year, but we need a commitment that this will happen. Until it opens, women continue to be separated from their babies for treatment by non-specialists, causing life-long trauma and risking the lives of mums and babies.
You can read more of APP’s response on our website.
If you haven’t watched the programme, you can see it here. It’s powerful, emotional and deeply moving. If you choose to view it please look after yourself and reach out to members of the APP staff peer support team for a chat if you need it.
If you have experience of PP or severe postnatal mental illness, live in Northern Ireland and would like to join our continuing campaign for a Mother and Baby Unit or learn more about our café group, please get in touch. National or NI charities and organisations can connect with the Maternal Mental Health Alliance or Aware NI to find out how to support the campaign.
Northern Ireland face to face café group
We were delighted to hold our second in-person café group (pictured above) for Northern Ireland in Belfast recently.
APP’s National Peer Support Coordinator, Ellie Ware, was joined by ten women and family members who have experienced postpartum psychosis.
The group meets each month via video call, but nothing beats meeting in person. As we train more NI peer support volunteers, we hope to arrange more in-person meet ups.
To find out more about joining the group, or to express an interest in training as a NI peer support volunteer, please get in touch.
Watch our GSK award film
Members of the APP team attended a special ceremony to collect our 2025 GSK IMPACT award.
We’re thrilled that Action on Postpartum Psychosis has been honoured in this way. The annual awards, which are delivered in partnership with The King’s Fund, are a mark of excellence in the charity sector, recognising outstanding work by small and medium sized charities. More than 700 charities entered this year’s awards. Ten winners, including APP, were chosen by the panel.
A new short film showcasing APP’s work was shown for the first time at the event. The video, which features APP peer support staff working with families at Mother and Baby Units as well as Shaheda Akhtar from our Diverse Communities Outreach project, was commissioned as part of the GSK IMPACT award prize package. You can watch it here and read more about the award on our website.
APP Webinar 2025: book your free place now
On Wednesday 8th October APP will be hosting the 2025 APP Webinar for frontline health professionals working with families in the perinatal period.
Suicide is the leading cause of maternal death in the UK and rates are increasing nationally. This free webinar is open to frontline health professionals including GPs, midwives, health visitors and antenatal educators.
APP experts, women and families with lived experience and clinicians will highlight the early signs and symptoms of postpartum psychosis and discuss how frontline health professionals can work with perinatal mental health teams to help prevent maternal suicides.
This will be the third in the webinar series. 6,438 health professionals have signed up in previous years. Of attendees, 93% rated the training as ‘excellent’; 7% rated it ‘good’ and 100% agreed they would change their practice as a result.
You can book your free place here. There’s no limit to the number of places available - please share the details with colleagues and encourage them to join us for this important event.
Peer support volunteer training
I attended the APP peer support training to become a peer supporter myself. It has been so very special to be able to share my own recovery to help other women in theirs.
Are you a Black mum who lives in the UK who has experienced psychosis in the perinatal period, and are interested in being a peer support volunteer with us?
We will be running a peer support training for new volunteers in London on 6th September. We already have a lot of people who are interested in attending, but we would love to have more Black peer support volunteers who are willing to offer a few hours a month to support recovering mums.
If you are interested in finding out more, please get in touch with us: app@app-network.org.
Thai translations of APP Insider Guides - can you help?
Do you speak Thai and have lived experience of postpartum psychosis (PP) either in the UK or Thailand? Could you help give feedback on our new Thai guides?
We’re working with the Pranaiya and Arthur Magoffin Foundation to translate our Insider Guides into Thai. These free guides provide vital information for women and families affected by PP, co-produced by those with lived experience, specialist clinicians, and leading experts.
We rely on the support of partner organisations for translation. The translations are reviewed by Thai speaking clinicians, but we also need feedback from those with personal experience to help us review the accuracy and tone of the guides.
If you are a Thai speaker with experience of PP or severe postnatal mental illness, and can help give feedback, please get in touch: app@app-network.org.
New Chester Mother and Baby Unit: update
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APP’s Jocelyn Ellams and Sally Wilson (pictured above) recently visited Seren Lodge, the new Mother and Baby Unit (MBU) under construction in Chester.
As part of our ongoing campaign for more MBUs, Jocelyn and Sally, along with local APP volunteers, have been working with Helix Experts by Experience group inputting into the development of Seren Lodge.
The eight-bed unit will provide vital support for families across North Wales and North-West England and is set to open by the end of the year. You can watch a video of Jocelyn and Sally’s visit here.
If anyone with lived experience in the Cheshire, Wirral, or North Wales areas would like to find out more about the Helix group you can do so here.
Reading Well for families
APP is supporting a new scheme designed to support the mental health and wellbeing of families during pregnancy and the early years (from conception to age two).
The Reading Well for families booklist was launched on 10th June and is available across public libraries in England and Wales. It includes information and personal stories on topics such as parental wellbeing, perinatal mental health problems (including anxiety, depression, OCD and birth trauma), and coping with loss (including miscarriage, stillbirth, and neonatal death).
Amongst the books on the list are “What Have I Done?” by APP Ambassador Laura Dockrill and “Bonkers” by Olivia Siegl, both accounts of the authors’ experiences with postpartum psychosis.
Find the books in your local library or browse the collection here.
Raising awareness of PP: support for dads and co-parents
APP volunteer Chris Wasley and Partner Peer Support Coordinator Simon O’Mara attended the Royal College of Midwives 2025 Conference (pictured above), where Chris gave a presentation about his family’s experience of postpartum psychosis.
Simon writes:
Chris’s presentation was a very powerful lived experience, delivered with passion, perfect pacing and spot on timing. It left the audience in no doubt of how postpartum psychosis can affect partners and as I looked around I could see how much it resonated with the audience. He was greeted by a huge round of applause that continued to fill the theatre for some time.
We’re really grateful to Chris for sharing his story in this way. If you’d like to find out more about APP’s dads and co-parents peer support, or if you have a few hours a month to raise awareness or support other partners, you can read more on our website or email Simon.
APP at Ireland Perinatal Mental Health Conference
On May 20th, APP’s National Training Coordinator, Dr. Sally Wilson, delivered a keynote speech at the Republic of Ireland Perinatal Mental Health Conference, held at University Maternity Hospital in Limerick, Ireland.
Centred around the theme of connection, synergy, and integration, the conference brought together experts dedicated to improving maternal mental health care. Sally spoke about the importance of MBUs, PP health professional training and the vital peer support services APP provides to families affected by postpartum psychosis.
Sally said:
It was inspiring to hear about the incredible work being done by specialist perinatal mental health teams across Ireland. I had the privilege of meeting so many dedicated professionals from different health trusts, all deeply committed to supporting families during the perinatal period. The day was a celebration of collaboration and the achievements of the teams so far
Ireland currently has no Mother and Baby Unit, so next steps will focus on expanding community perinatal mental health teams and progressing plans to establish an MBU.
If you live in the Republic of Ireland and have experienced PP and would be interested in linking up with APP as a regional representative volunteer, please get in touch.
Can you help to improve recovery after postpartum psychosis?
APP has been working with a team in the Department of Clinical Psychology at the University of East Anglia for the past few years on the development of tools to support psychological recovery from PP.
As part of this work, second-year Trainee Clinical Psychologist, Beth, is looking for people who have experienced postpartum psychosis to complete a survey.
The aim of this research is to better understand recovery after an acute episode and help develop new psychological support for others going through similar experiences in the future.
Please help us by taking part. You can find out more and take part here. If you have any questions Beth can be contacted via email: Bethany.Palmer@uea.ac.uk
Have your say on research gaps for women and families affected by PP
Postpartum Psychosis research has been underfunded for many years, leading to gaps in knowledge about the condition. This lack of knowledge can be distressing for women and families trying to seek information and for health professionals trying to provide high quality care.
The Perinatal Mental Health Priority Setting Partnership, supported by the James Lind Alliance, is gathering data to outline future research priorities to improve the lives of women, birthing people, babies, and families.
They would like to hear from people with lived experience, healthcare professionals and voluntary organisations on the research questions that need answering.
APP will be highlighting difficulties caused by knowledge gaps around: the causes of PP; prevention; medication (lack of specially designed drugs, and limited research of medications during pregnancy and breastfeeding); psychological recovery; diagnosis; long term illness course and outcomes; impact on children, and how care influences outcomes for children; and managing menopause, to name a few, but please highlight anything else you feel impacts on parental mental health.
If you would like to highlight the personal impact of gaps in knowledge about postpartum psychosis, and have a few minutes to spare, this is your chance to influence future research priorities. You can take the survey here.
Fabulous fundraisers
Thank you to everyone who took part in our Miles for Mums and Babies challenge during May - from ultra marathon runners, to long distance walkers, to team challenges and fun runners - there’s been a lot going on right across the UK! And of course, it’s not too late to get involved - with this challenge you can do it whenever you want to. Learn more about our wonderful Miles for Mums and Babies fundraisers and find out how you can take part too here.
Good luck to the amazing team taking on the Great North Swim in Lake Windermere for APP this weekend! Claire, Louise, Mary, Roban and Laura, all healthcare professionals from the South Yorks Community Perinatal Mental Health Team, are aiming to complete a one mile open water swim. They’ve already raised over £1,500 and are looking forward to the challenge! More here.
And another good luck message to the fantastic team of nine who will be taking part in the Barnsley 10k at the end of June! Jemma, Gemma, Amy, Beth, Joel, Danni, Steph, Emma and Sally are hoping to turn the town purple on the 29th to help raise lots of awareness and funds for APP. Thank you team! Check out their fundraising page here.
We’re also all so excited that our first ever APP Adventure is happening on 21st June! We have more than 40 people signed up for our Mam Tor Challenge, including teams from the Margaret Oates MBU in Nottingham, and the Yorks & Humber MBU in Leeds, as well as APP supporters, parents, grandparents, friends, trustees and staff members. Fingers crossed for good weather as we hike together across the Peak District. We’ll be posting updates so keep an eye out for photos, and do send us some good luck messages to keep us going!
Take on a challenge for APP this autumn
Looking for your next challenge or need something to motivate you to train over the summer? We have places in hundreds of events later in the year, from the London Shoreditch 10k to the Great Scottish Run in Glasgow, the Cheltenham Running Festival, Oxford Half, Yorkshire Marathon or Great South Run in Portsmouth - plus family friendly inflatable races and ToughMudders throughout the summer and autumn, and even a run round Alton Towers (including a free ride pass for runners!) - there’s something for everyone. Check out our regularly updated challenge page here for all these and more.
New maternal mental health planner
We are delighted to share a beautiful maternal mental health planner that can now be purchased from journal company DayDot - a gentle, reflective, supportive space designed to support new parents through the highs, the lows, and everything in between.
APP volunteer Tara and her husband Chris, based in Northern Ireland, created DayDot in 2023 - read more about Tara's story here.
This new maternal mental health planner has been created in collaboration with APP and with input from our network, and all profits from the planner will go directly to APP, helping fund vital support for families experiencing postpartum psychosis.
The planner is designed not just for those who have experienced postpartum psychosis, but for any mother navigating the emotional landscape of early motherhood.
A huge thank you to Tara and Chris for all their hard work bringing this planner into fruition. You can read more, and access DayDot, here.
Dates for your diary
Birth Trauma Awareness Week, Saturday 14th - Friday 20th June: www.birthtraumaassociation.org
Father’s Day, Sunday 15th June
International Fathers' Mental Health Day, Monday 16th June
APP Lancashire and South Cumbria face to face café group meet up in Lancaster, Wednesday 18th June
APP dads and co-parents virtual café group meet up, Wednesday 18th June
APP Lancashire and South Cumbria face to face café group meet up in Preston, Friday 20th June
APP Mam Tor Adventure, Saturday 21st June
APP UK-wide virtual café group meet up, Thursday 26th June
APP Manchester face to face café group meet up, Friday 27th June
APP Muslim women’s virtual café group meet up, Tuesday 1st July
APP neurodiverse virtual peer support group, Monday 7th July
Contact information for all APP café groups is available here.
Conferences and Events
Improving Perinatal Mental Health Services, Friday 27th June
Online conference with presentations from expert speakers at local and national level. Learning from the most recent MBRRACE- UK Report and roadmap to strengthening perinatal mental health will be shared. Members of the APP network will receive a 20% discount with code hcuk20app. Book here.
Northern Maternity & Midwifery Festival, Tuesday 8th July
Free to attend professional festival in Manchester for practising and student healthcare professionals working across maternity and midwifery. Booking details here.
Wales & South West England Maternity & Midwifery Festival, Tuesday 23rd September
Free to attend professional festival in Cardiff, bringing together qualified and student healthcare professionals to hear from maternity leaders on a wide range of topical themes. Booking details here.
Suicide Bereavement UK's 14th international hybrid conference, Thursday 25th September.
Hybrid conference in Manchester and online for anyone who comes into contact with those bereaved or affected by suicide. More details and booking information here.
If you would like to advertise your event here, please get in touch: app@app-network.org.