Supporting Parents and Families with Perinatal Mental Health: A Guide for Professionals

Providing help for practitioners to support parents and grandparents during the perinatal period, this book offers advice on how to maintain good mental wellbeing. The authors lay the groundwork for understanding the factors that affect perinatal mental health and offer practical interventions which enhance the practitioners’ ability to help both parents.

The book looks at the importance of good mental health, the different types of poor mental health, as well as the impact of these on the infant. It also raises awareness of the importance of fathers’ mental health and the understanding of how parents can have different timelines for their own traumas.

By providing practitioners with a toolkit to look at parents’ and grandparents’ mental health during the perinatal period, Supporting Parents and Families with Perinatal Mental Health and Wellbeing is an essential guide for recognising parents’ deteriorating mental health, helping them to improve it, leading them to recovery.

Jane Hanley has written many articles and papers on perinatal mental health, presented papers at conferences both nationally and internationally, is a Former President of the International Marcé Society for Perinatal Mental Health and is currently on the Exec Board. Jane is also the author of ’Perinatal Mental Health’ published by Wiley/Blackwell and ’Listening Visits in Perinatal Mental Health’ published by Routledge. Jane and Mark recently wrote ’Fathers and Perinatal Mental Health’, published by Taylor Francis. All are reference books for professionals. She is regularly invited to provide training and to speak at international conferences on most aspects of perinatal mental health .

Mark Williams is a keynote speaker, author and international campaigner. In 2004, he experienced depression following the birth of his son and his wife’s struggles. As a result, he decided that no-one else should experience what he did and made a concerted effort to ensure that fathers’ mental health was recognised and that the voice of fathers everywhere was heard. He realised it had to be a national and well as international effort and founded International Fathers Mental Health Day and #Howareyoudad campaign to make sure all parents have the support of the whole family as well as professionals. Both these achievements have received international acclaim.