Mums Matter

Timeframe: 2016-2018

Dr Laura Warwick led a co-design project with Mind, the UK’s largest mental health service, to create a new perinatal mental health service. Warwick trained 5 mums who had experienced mental health issues during their pregnancy or the post-natal period, as peer designers, to help lead the design activity and make decisions about the service’s purpose, look and feel. The resulting service, Mums Matter, was an eight-week peer support course that helped to: challenge myths of motherhood; nurture mum; and provide tools and techniques to help them manage the everyday. It also provided a session for relatives to learn how best to support the mums during this time.

Following the completion of the design stage, Laura supported the prototyping of Mums Matter, working with a mental health practitioner to develop the course content and materials, and support the delivery of two prototype courses.

In 2017, Mind successfully applied for GBP117,940 to pilot the service in rural Wales, which supported 121 mums experiencing mental health issues. Independent evaluation into the pilot found that 95% of participants reported an improvement in their wellbeing by the end of the programme. Currently, Mums Matter is being delivered by eight local Mind organisations across England and Wales.