Parents in Mind

About

What is Parents in Mind and peer to peer support?
‘Talk and support, parent to parent’
Parents in Mind offers emotional support for parents who are experiencing low mood, anxiety or poor mental health when expecting or within the first two years of birth.
Many mums, dads & partners can find it difficult to open up about how they are feeling and continue to suffer in silence. Parents in Mind aims to improve parents emotional wellbeing and to reduce isolation within the community, by providing a safe space to talk and good quality support from a trained volunteer.
Building on the peer support offered by NCT for many years, the Parents in Mind project wants to see more parents & families be able to access the support that they need at what can be a very challenging time. Well trained volunteer peer supporters offer a listening ear and non-judgemental support, helping parents to develop coping strategies and to access local services.
We are not clinicians, health advisors or therapist – we simple offer parents a safe, judgment-free & filter free space to offload the full feelings of parenthood.
Face-to-face groups and private one-to-ones can be accessed within the community and/or virtually to suit and enable all parents access to PIM support.
We don’t have large waits, we engage with parents wanting support quickly, with support able to begin the following week if they choose.

Who might want to access the service?
Parents in Mind can help parents who are feeling down or anxious during pregnancy or during the first two years after childbirth, or who are struggling emotionally as a result of pregnancy and/or early parenthood. There doesn’t need to be a formal diagnosis. It might be the first step for parents who have found it hard to talk about how they are feeling, or who want to meet other local parents who are experiencing similar challenges.

Services

What do you need to know?

Reflective Parenting is a psychoeducational group. It involves a mix of teaching and discussions, it is not therapy.
The group is a space for parents to think about what they bring to the relationship with their child as much as it is about developing a greater understanding of the baby / infant.
The group promotes a specific parenting stance called “mentalizing” and it will cover teaching on child development, parenting and the parent-infant relationship
The aim is to improve the parent’s connection and closeness to the infant, to support parents regulate their own distress levels and develop a greater understanding of what they bring to the relationship with their infant

Who is the course appropriate for?
*Parents in Mind are able to take referrals for St Helens Residents with a child under the age of 2*

The parent may be experiencing difficulties in their relationship with their child.
The child may be displaying difficult behaviour or responses to the parent which the parent is struggling to manage.
The parent may already have tried several methods to try to manage the child’s behaviour or emotions without success.
There could be signs be a pattern of escalating negative cycles of interaction between the parent and child/infant.
The parent/child will not be at a threshold where they need intensive therapeutic input. If they are, this may just meaning waiting or understanding more about that parent before the course.
It should be noted to the parent/referrer that RP is not a stand-alone therapeutic intervention but is a psychoeducation group.
Parents should be motivated and want to join a group and not mandated to attend.
We have now delivered 4 cohorts of RP with parents locally. 90% of service users feeding back that their feelings towards attachment & bonding needs were met after completing Reflective Parenting. 100% feeling an increased sense of confidence in parenting their own child.