Reference no: EM133648856
A local family centre has recently been awarded funding to deliver a perinatal mental health service for families experiencing mental health difficulties during the perinatal period. The perinatal period covers pregnancy and one year post-birth. The family centre offers a variety of resources, services and support at a local level, including outreach work, liaison with the local mother and baby unit and social care, support groups, crèche provision, and counselling. The centre is in a deprived area, and most people it supports experience poverty, mental health difficulties and relationship difficulties.
The manager of the family centre has approached you to ask for help. The new perinatal service has recently recruited volunteers to support the day-to-day running of the daily morning drop-in groups. This is where expectant mothers and fathers or new parents can drop in for informal support or a chat, often with their young children. Due to the informal nature of this group, and the fact that women in particular may attend without their partner, the service has noticed an increase in people disclosing relationship difficulties that they are needing support with.
The newly recruited drop-in group volunteers include previous service users, college and undergraduate students on placement and community members who want to offer a morning or two a week to support the centre. The drop-in groups are supervised and managed by paid, full-time members of staff at the family centre.
The manager of the family centre is running some induction training for new volunteers and has contacted you to ask you to contribute to the training. The training will focus on increasing understanding of the mental health needs of this population and, in particular, increasing understanding and knowledge of relationship difficulties.
The manager asked you to focus on four areas:
- What are relationship difficulties and, in particular, what forms might these take for this population?
- What is the impact of relationship conflict and relationship breakdown on adults and children?
- What kinds of other wellbeing or safety issues for this population should the team be aware of in its service provision?
Your recommendations to support the volunteers supporting the delivery of the drop-in groups (up to three recommendations in total).