Young Parents’ Perinatal Mental Health Support Service
Acacia Family Support is a Birmingham-based charity supporting mums, dads, and families affected by pre and postnatal depression and anxiety. Our Young Parents Service offers support to mums under the age of 25 who are navigating significant and competing challenges. Many of the families we work with have experienced the care system or face strained family relationships. External pressures such as housing instability and limited employment opportunities are often intensified by the ongoing impact of the cost-of-living crisis and their mental health struggles.
Our service has expanded to include three additional parenting programmes: Watch Me Play, Triple P for Baby, and PIIOS (Parent Infant Interaction Observation Scale). This will shift the emphasis from a single focus on the mental health of the mother to a dual focus on bonding and wellbeing for both parent and baby. The aim is to help mothers better manage their own mental health and become more emotionally attuned to their baby, and to help their child grow in independence, emotional resilience, communication skills and physical health. Through improving the attachment, play, and bonding between parent and child, we aim to give children the best possible start in life.
