International Men’s Day was on November 19. We took the opportunity to shine a light on the fantastic work of our Partners in Mind service in St Helens, providing perinatal mental health peer support to partners and co-parents. Read more.
You might have heard of our Parents in Mind service, which supports mums in the North West as well as other areas. Now, Partners in Mind is providing similar support for partners and co-parents, too.
The support is centred on normalising the challenges that parenting brings, connecting with other partners who can validate and share their experiences of parenthood, and signposting to additional local and national support that they may not be aware that they can access.
Pete Smyth (pictured top), who works on the Partners in Mind project, says: “I’ve been involved in the NCT Parents in Mind pilot mentorship training since May, and now as the Partners Ambassador.
Self care is important: investment in ourselves benefits those around us
“It has given me an incredible insight into the power of communicating with fellow dads who have gone through similar experiences to myself. It has given us such a wonderful connection to the immense benefits of sharing our experiences for others to be inspired to do the same.
“Having discussed this with fellow dads, and mentors on the project, we have all recognised the importance of self care, self development and being active and engaged in projects for ourself, because investment in ourselves benefits all those around us.
“What better example to our children, than to have interests and be active members of the world around us, beyond our role as a parent?
“The mentorship training has been an incredibly humbling and life-affirming experience. The work being carried out by Parents in Mind is about kicking down the doors of stigma, normalising talking and connecting to fellow dads in a non-judgmental way. Deep down we are all humans going through life and facing similar struggles along the way.”
The partners who use our service can be referred by a professional, or self-refer by calling Catherine on 07702 900894, or emailing parentsinmind.nw@nct.org.uk.
Read more about our Parents in Mind service in Halton & St Helens, Newham and Coventry & Warwickshire.
Our infant feeding support line is free and open every day of the year from 8am-midnight. Call 0300 330 0700 to talk to our Breastfeeding Counsellors about all your feeding questions. We also have lots of articles and videos about breastfeeding on our website. Take a look here.
