Mums Matter, even in a Pandemic Carrie Pheasey, Mums Matter Co-ordinator As the pandemic lockdown was looming on the horizon, I was facing the exciting prospect of starting a new role with Manchester Mind as the Mums Matter Co-ordinator, a role that really connected with me at a very personal level. The project is a two year partnership with Homestart supporting Mums experiencing a range of peri-natal mental health challenges with a child under the age of two. This was an opportunity to combine my lived experience, my knowledge of mental health wellbeing interventions with my experience of delivering manualised and evidence-based courses, to make a meaningful and tangible difference to families and children. At first it felt like any other new job and project. The nervous excitement the night before preparing the family for the new routine and mentally planning how I would approach the project, establishing contacts, setting up introduction meetings and establishing relationships with my new colleagues. The normal approach to project set up was not actually on the agenda though. The getting to know you meetings and introductions all became conversations with an image on the screen, not the easiest way to establish strong and enduring relationships. There was still lots of excitement, networking with all the essential contacts and services in the area, sharing every detail and fielding interested questions from people who will soon be referred into the project. There was plenty to get on with, Annual Review 2020-21
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