The Hearts & Minds Partnership Launch
All about our live launch webinar!
On Wednesday 26th May we were thrilled to launch The Hearts & Minds Partnership, with a live Zoom webinar. Over 160 people registered to attend the webinar, from across the perinatal mental health community.
The event was a great opportunity to launch the partnership as well as celebrating the important work being done within the perinatal mental health grassroots VCS sector.  It was fantastic to be able to share what we have been working on, over the last few months; to introduce the partnership, share a sneaky peek of our interactive map of VCS perinatal mental health services and hear from professionals from across the sector.
Huge thanks go to each of our panel of sector leaders, including: Vicki Hook, Robert Ewers, Dr Jo Black, Sandra Igwe, Anne-Marie Twumasi & Sasha Barber who responded to pressing questions raised by the grassroots perinatal mental health community via our monthly virtual meet-ups, The Conversation Space (see our social media and Events page for regular updates about upcoming Conversation Space topics and dates).
The discussion covered diverse topics affecting the sector, including:
The impact of grassroots VCS PMH services and how to articulate that to funders and commissioners
How to ensure that dads and partners have access to support in their communities to meet their specific needs? 
The integration of VCS services into the clinical landscape – how HCPs (Health Care Professionals) and VCS services can work in an integrated way, each recognising the role they play in a multi-faceted support system for families
Considering inclusion and diversity and the practical steps to ensure diverse communities can access inclusive, culturally sensitive services in their local area
The complexity of cases that VCS services support as well as considering the role of VCS in meeting the needs of parents who don’t quite meet the threshold to access specialist perinatal mental health services
How can the perinatal mental health VCS sector be supported with sustained investment so they can make long term plans for growth, particularly at a time when we know the funding landscape is challenging coming out of the pandemic.
We also showcased our new website, which includes an interactive map of safe VCS perinatal mental health services to signpost parents & healthcare professionals to. This is at the core of the Hearts & Minds Partnership and a fundamental tool to direct parents and healthcare colleagues to quality, safe VCS perinatal mental health support in their local area, as well as nationally.
The launch marked the start of The Hearts & Minds Partnership’s journey to connect and develop community-led, grassroots perinatal mental health support services across England and we are excited to share its evolution over coming months with you all across the sector. Keep an eye on our website and social media for updates, or get in touch by dropping us a line at hello@heartsandmindspartnership.org
Thank you to everyone who joined us on 26th May, we look forward to growing this incredible community & providing a coherent voice for our sector.
If you weren’t able to make it or would like to re-cap anything, the full session can be viewed here.