WellSouth and Headlight supporting the mental health of Southern Parents

Headlight has been helping to support the mental health of parents across the Southern District thanks to a recent training project with WellSouth Primary Health Network.

Since November 2022, Headlight facilitators have travelled to five different locations across the Southern region to bring tailored mental health education to breastfeeding peer support volunteers who support the wellbeing of parents and families with young children.

The GoodYarn community workshops were led by a team of peer facilitators with lived experience of parenting-related mental distress. 

The workshops were designed to empower peer supporters of Southern parents with the skills, knowledge and confidence to talk to mums and dads about their mental health and wellbeing and also learn valuable information to support their own wellbeing.

The project was led by Krista Baker, an experienced peer supporter herself and parenting mental health advocate. Krista’s own experiences allowed her to provide a real life perspective on the challenges peer volunteers may face in their roles.

“It was a privilege to facilitate the workshops for the WellSouth peer supporters.  As to be expected with peer supporters, there was a high degree of mental health literacy within each of the groups.  However, the key area which the GoodYarn workshops fulfilled was increasing participants' confidence to talk to someone about their mental health and how to tackle conversations that might be awkward or challenging,” said Krista.

The programme ran six educational workshops in Wanaka, Alexandra, Invercargill, Dunedin, Te Anau, and one online. A total of 50 women actively participated in the workshops, each taking this valuable training back to support families in their communities.

"We’re thrilled to be able to bring the GoodYarn workshops to the peer supporters in the Southern District with the Headlight team," said Paula Hedges, WellSouth Health Promotion Team Leader. 

"We knew that new parents and parents with young children have been under increasing pressure since the COVID pandemic began, and peer supporters need more support than ever to help them talk to new mums and families about mental health and wellbeing."

Hedges added, "The impact of the workshops was felt widely, as they helped more peer supporters improve their mental health literacy for the mums they worked with and provided practical learnings that could be applied to their own mental wellbeing, as well as with their colleagues, clients, family, and whānau."

( Headlight facilitator Krista Baker with Te Anau workshop participants)