The Participation Officer for the Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Programme Board has been working with the Managed Clinical Network (MCN) for Perinatal Mental Health to facilitate the creation a group of experts by experience of perinatal mental health. This group will include mothers, fathers and partners, and family members of people who have experienced perinatal mental health, and the services designed to support them.
Members of the group will be invited to be involved at a level that suits them. The projects include:
- Co-designing a protocol for involvement of people with lived experience in perinatal mental health steering groups within NHS Board, which will be shared by the MCN;
- Advising on an information gathering project which will gather the views of people who have experienced perinatal mental health services in Scotland;
- Advising on funding applications for the Inspiring Scotland PIHM fund;
- Responding to consultations on documents;
- Anything else the group deems appropriate to raise the voice of women and families with lived experience of perinatal mental illness.
We hope that this structure will provide support to experts by experience, and lead to a meaningful period of involvement in service and policy development in perinatal mental health.
The group is designed to ensure inclusion of diverse groups, and we particularly would like to invite interest from experts by experience from BAME backgrounds, gypsy/travellers, LGBT parents, refugees and asylum seeking families, disabled parents and people who live in rural areas of Scotland.
Please contact clare.thompson@maternalmentalhealthscotland.org.uk for more information. Interested parties should register here.
