For whom, in what circumstances, in what respects, and why?
The Centre for Maternal and Child Health Research at the School of Health and Psychological Science, City, University of London welcome Jenny McLeish to present a theory of change for Parents in Mind, a third sector perinatal mental health peer support programme at three sites in England, as part of the research seminar series.
Abstract
This seminar will present a theory of change for Parents in Mind, a third sector perinatal mental health peer support programme at three sites in England.
Realist evaluation methods were used, based on programme data and semi-structured interviews with mothers who received peer support (n=20), peer support volunteers (n=27), and programme staff (n=9).
Positive impact on mothers was based on feeling understood and accepted, normalisation, social comparison and information sharing.
Negative impact on mothers was based on negative social comparison, or absence of key peer support mechanisms. Positive impact on volunteers was based on receiving peer support, gaining skills, confidence and mental health insight, and satisfaction at helping others.
Negative impact on volunteers was explained by feeling emotionally triggered, stressful social dynamics, and distress if their support did not help.
Individual mothers and volunteers were affected in different ways, depending on their backgrounds, personalities, social situations, resources, experiences, beliefs, and needs; and different mechanisms were present in one-to-one or group situations.
All participants considered the benefits of peer support to greatly outweigh the risks.
About the speaker
Jenny McLeish is a qualitative health services researcher at the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit, University of Oxford.
Having started out as a barrister, she worked for many years in the voluntary sector on policy, research and information for disadvantaged and vulnerable families, before joining the academic world in 2013.
She also works for child health charity Best Beginnings, as the writer for the award-winning Baby Buddy phone app which provides accessible, personalised daily information for parents during pregnancy and the first 12 months after birth.
She is deputy chair of Birth Companions, a women’s charity dedicated to tackling inequalities and disadvantage during pregnancy, birth and early motherhood, particularly for mothers in prison.
This seminar is based on doctoral work carried out at City with Susan Ayers and Christine McCourt.
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