Peer to Parent
We are delighted to be the learning partners for the pilot of ‘Peer to Parent’ which is a peer support collaborative in Essex supporting parents and families during the perinatal period. Peer to Parent brings together a wide range of information around how peer support can support parents and families to meet others, feel less isolated and deal with some of the harder times during this period.
You can find out more on the Peer to Parent website here: https://parents1st.org.uk/essex-peer-to-parent-network
As learning partners we have been meeting lot of the people involved including those delivering peer support, those working in the perinatal system like the Perinatal Mental Health team and midwives and those commissioning services to understand the key learning from this approach.
We have done this through running some workshops and having open discussions as well as speaking to people one to one. The ides of the Action Learning approach is that we can feed in learning as we go to have a direct impact on the service delivery and be of maximum support to all involved.
Action learning group workshops
During the life of the pilot we will be holding three action learning group workshops for all those involved in directly delivering peer support – we had a very energetic first session and were struck by the passion and commitment of all involved. At the end of the workshop one participant said the following which really summed up the power of peer support and parents having someone in their corner:
‘I really like that it is about the outcomes for parents and not NHS or anyone else’s outcome.’
The action learning workshops are providing a great space to share ideas and discuss how to best deliver support alongside existing perinatal services and what was needed to encourage all parents and partners to get the support they need, when they need it.
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For more information about Parents 1st and the work they do visit: