The magic behind Home-Start’s perinatal mental health support

Pregnancy and the first two years of a child’s life can be a joyful time. It can also be very challenging. 1 in 5 women will experience mental health difficulties during this period. Home-Start supports women across London facing their toughest times, ensuring they avoid crisis point.

Home-Start London recently partnered with CNWL NHS Foundation Trust to provide volunteer-led, home visiting support to women struggling with perinatal mental health difficulties in five boroughs. We worked with three local Home-Starts: Home-Start Hillingdon, Home-Start Barnet, Brent, Enfield and Harrow, and Home-Start Westminster, Kensington & Chelsea, and Hammersmith & Fulham. Home-Start support complemented clinical services, ensuring women got the holistic support they needed.

The partnership delivered great results: 80% of the women supported reported improved mental health and 83% reported reduced social isolation. We asked women who had accessed the service and the NHS Community Perinatal Teams that we worked with what they valued most about Home-Start support. Three key themes emerged:

  1. Trusted volunteers and skilled staff. Uniquely, Home-Start is invited into family homes and, through weekly visits, volunteers quickly build trusted relationships. As one Consultant Perinatal Psychiatrist noted, “Home-Start is safe. Families don’t feel threatened or judged. They can confide in the volunteers or express things that might be difficult.” Meanwhile, other referrers saw Home-Start staff as “highly professional” and “committed, kind and approachable”.
  2. An empowering approach. For women accessing the service, volunteers “helped bring out the me that I missed” and “supported me to make my own choices”. Home-Start’s strengths-based approach is highly effective in building skills and confidence. As another noted, “I have been supported to create a network of people around me rather than feeling like I am on my own all the time. I now have the motivation, confidence, and belief in myself to move forward.”
  3. Flexible, tailored support that meets individual needs. According to a Clinical Team Lead Psychiatrist, “Home-Start adjust their work to our patients and their needs at that particular time in their mental health journey to recovery”. The flexibility of Home-Start support was widely recognised and seen as key to enabling us to offer practical and emotional support that best meets individual needs.

Home-Start’s perinatal mental health support has proven impact. Demand for our services is very high and we are looking for opportunities to extend to reach more women and their families across London. You can help us to do this by:

Donating: you can make a donation to help support our work here.

Volunteering: you can find out more about volunteering for us here.

Partnering with us: if you would like to find out more about partnering with us so that every parent in London is able to give their child the best start in life, email director@home-startlondon.org