Post Natal Depression Support Association (PNDSA) Inc.

PNDSA Organisation Profile and History:

The Post Natal Depression Support Association (PNDSA) Inc. provides support, understanding and information to women, partners and families affected by pregnancy and childbirth related stress and depression.

The PNDSA was formed and incorporated in July 1997 by a group of volunteer women (all recovered from PND) who felt committed to helping others survive Post Natal Depression. First and foremost, the strength of our association is our volunteers. We have the most amazing array of mums who have recovered from their own struggle with PND to give so much of themselves in physical, mental and emotional effort.

The PNDSA is based in Subiaco, Perth with limited services to the metropolitan and regional WA areas. We are situated on the site of King Edward Memorial Hospital and is an administration office only. We regret we are unable to provide a “drop-in” service.

We provide our support groups in partnership with many of the community centres, women’s health centres and parenting centres in Perth. Thus, we are providing a complementary service to those offered by health professionals. We have found this partnership to be very rewarding for all parties. Thus, when health professionals are marketing their services they also ‘make use’ of our support group service and hence they publicise the partnerships that the PNDSA has with health professionals.

Our support groups and phone support provides a ‘safe’ environment for all women who have postnatal depression. The PNDSA assists all women from all sorts of walks of life, from different races and cultures and socio-economic backgrounds. The one thing all these different people have is their PND and together they help each other to get well again.

Each time we provide phone support and information to a caller, we are not only helping that woman, but also her partner, her immediate family, friends, colleagues, her baby and their siblings. PND affects every member in one’s immediate and extended family. When a mother attends our support groups, the baby is in a safe and stimulating crèche and the mother acquires self-help skills and support from our groups – skills that she can then take home to improve her life, her family and social networks. She is also likely to be in a future position of herself & helping others who have PND.

Our Aims

· To provide support to women, partners and families affected by pregnancy and childbirth-related stress and depression;

· To provide information and raise awareness in the general community about pregnancy and childbirth related stress and depression;

· To co-ordinate training of people interested in developing the skills to facilitate self help groups and telephone support for the purpose of PNDSA activities;

· To encourage formation of new groups and strengthen existing self help groups for women with pregnancy and childbirth related stress and depression;

· To encourage networking with related organisations;

· To provide consumer representation on relevant committees and meeting and lobby for the development of more appropriate services for women with pregnancy and childbirth-related stress and depression.

Our Primary Activities

· Facilitate support groups to women currently suffering from postnatal depression. These are run in partnership with:

o Gosnells Women’s Health Service

o Midland Women’s Health Care Place

o Raphael Centre, St John of God Health Care

· Information dissemination to health professionals and students (particularly tertiary) through the telephone support service;

· Provide phone support to the public: to mothers, families and friends affected by PND;

· A referral service for mothers to appropriate health professionals;

· Produce newsletters for members

· Liaise with health professionals for appropriate care for clients;

· Provide PND-recovered mothers for public speaking to groups of health professionals, new mothers groups, to antenatal classes, high school students and to various related networking and interest groups;

· Provide consumer representation in such groups as:

o blueVoices committee (a national consumer sub-group of beyondblue)

o State Perinatal Mental Health Project

o Gosnells Childbirth Stress & Depression Reference Group

o beyondblue National Perinatal Mental Health Action Plan

o and St John of God Health Care Raphael Centre Steering committee;

· Raise community awareness through a presence in The West Australian and Community Newspapers, local community displays and by an annual stand at the ‘Pregnancy, Babies & Children’s Expo”;

Structure and Volunteers:

Since inception, the PNDSA has been run by Management Committees consisting of the usual positions of President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer and the remaining people being ordinary committee members. Our committee members usually consist of recovered PND mums and health professionals – all on a voluntary capacity.

As yet, we do not have any paid staff, although one of our goals is to have a paid team so we are able to expand our services and provide a much richer and effective service.

Funding and Donations

We welcome any donation small or large. Donations over $2 are tax deductible as the PNDSA has Deductible Gift Status. We will provide a Tax Invoice / Receipt for your taxation records.

If you wish to donate to ensure success of a particular service or project we are more than welcome to discuss this. Correspondence may be directed at the President.

Membership forms are available on request.

Annual Membership is $15 for PND membership and $30 for Health Professionals.

Email the PNDSA on pndsa@hotmail.com with your details and we will send you a form.

Achievements over the past few years

· State winner in the National Australia Bank National Volunteer Awards 2003 and 2006.

· 2006 Mental Health Good Outcomes Awards Winner - Consumer Group

· 2006 Community Service Industry Awards Finalist for the Postnatal Depression Support Groups

· Continuation of our current services which included facilitating over 100 support groups and providing information to over 500 callers.

· A dedicated recruitment campaign including media releases in The West Australian and local newspapers, posters in local council libraries and child health centres, was done at the start of the year. Many health professionals also devoted resources to assisting us in gaining more volunteers.

· Introduced a three-step recruitment process.

· Distributed in excess of 25,000 brochures on postnatal depression and related topics.

· Strong consumer representation over a number of local and national projects and initiatives.

· Underwent an extensive external appraisal aimed at identifying areas and methods of improving the associations operation. We have adopted recommendations that are enhancing the effectiveness of our service provision.

· Successfully acquired funding to continue existing services, start new projects and participate in relevant events such as the Australasian Marcé Society Conference.

Our services

The extent of our services does alter with financial and people resources however we are pleased to provide support groups and information resources on a regular basis.

The support groups primarily provide an opportunity for mothers experiencing depression, distress and anxiety during the perinatal period, to be supported by other mothers. We provide a confidential, non-judgmental and nurturing environment allowing mothers to express themselves. All our facilitators have experienced antenatal and/or postnatal; depression and anxiety and therefore are able to provide an empathetic and understanding role in the group.

The group also aims to:

· Provide information and awareness of the different areas of perinatal mental health.

· Provide tools to support group mothers to take action in assisting themselves in recovery.

· Promote a sense of belonging and therefore community with other mothers and the wider community.

· Provide information on local professional services.

· By having access to information on depression, anxiety, medication, parenting issues & services related to their situation, mothers would be able to acquire guidance in actively overcoming their illness.

Where possible Crèches are available at groups and we strongly urge all babies and children are cared for in the crèche so that the mum can get a well deserved rest for 2 hours.

The group will be non-judgmental and participation is voluntary.

Our current groups are held at:

Raphael Centre, St John of God Hospital, Subiaco

Gosnells Women’s Health Service

Midland Women’s Health Care Place

For detailed information please email us at or view our diary at http://calendar.msn.com/pndsa@hotmail.com

Phone Support

We provide a phone service to mums and families affected by PND, we can also refer people to appropriate health services and provide and mail out PND information. The calls are accepted onto an answering machine and are cleared within 24/48 hours. Please be patient with us as we are volunteers and we try our best within our resources.

Note: We are NOT a crisis service.

Public Speaking

We can provide women who have had speak on their experiences.

Please call us on 9340 1622 or email us to arrange details. We do request a donation for this service.

Training Course

We conduct a Training Course annually to train PNDSA volunteers to assist in all areas of operation. Our training course is more specifically for the purpose of facilitating our support groups. Enquiries for this free course can be made to 9340 1622. In return we ask all participants to provide 2 years (of very part time) volunteering.

Through information dissemination, support, public speaking and consumer representation we are able to educate the wider community about the importance of perinatal well-being and hopefully encourage positive attitudinal change regarding mental illness.

Our Contact Details:

Post Natal Depression Support Association (PNDSA) Inc.

15 Loretto Street, Subiaco WA 6008

PO Box 548, Subiaco WA 6904

Phone: 08 9340 1622

ABN 48 038 642 101

For general inquiries please email us pndsa@hotmail.com

For volunteering inquiries please email us at volunteerpndsa@hotmail.com