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Dear David.

PANDA Week starts on Sunday!

For the last fifteen years PANDA has been using a week in November to raise awareness about perinatal mental illness and to reduce stigma so those affected can seek help. The theme for PANDA Week 2020 is 'Tell someone who cares'.

Now more than ever it's vital that the 100,000 expecting and new parents who are affected by perinatal mental illness every year know they're not alone and can reach out for help.

You can help our campaign by sharing important information about perinatal mental health with your networks.

Your PANDA Week digital toolkit contains social media tiles, a screensaver, a poster, an article and other resources about perinatal mental health and PANDA Week. Please feel free to dip in and share as many as you like through your platforms and networks!

If you can help us reach just one extra expecting or new parent with important information; or help one extra family know how they can seek support, then together, we will have made a real difference.

Thank you.

The team at PANDA

There's another way you can help!

We need $50,000 to translate information and resources into a number of non-English languages so they are accessible to expecting and new parents from some of our most hardly reached communities. This will ensure they too can access critical information about perinatal mental illness.

You might know that PANDA recently received some additional funding from the Commonwealth and State Governments. This funding was incredibly welcome and will help support our National Perinatal Mental Health Helpline services as well as some health education videos for multicultural communities.

Unfortunately this funding does not cover the translation of the important health information in PANDA resources into languages other than English. This means that many people from non-English speaking backgrounds miss out on critical information about perinatal mental illness and where those affected can get help.

Baby Bunting has generously offered to match donations up to a total of $25,000, to help us reach our overall target of $50,000 during PANDA Week. So if you're able to make a donation at this time, it will be worth double whatever you can give!

Thank you!

Dear David.

It's Men's Health Week this week, the perfect time to start an important conversation about something that as a community we don''t discuss enough - the mental health of expecting and new dads.

In the past six months 63% of dads completing PANDA's Mental Health Checklist reported struggling with their confidence and feeling like a terrible parent. These kinds of negative thoughts can have long lasting impacts on families and communities.

Expecting and new dads can feel isolated, stressed, depressed and angry, their relationships and family bonds can break down, and sadly, men can even take their own lives or put others in danger.

The trouble is, we know dads often aren't the best at putting their mental health first and seeking help if they're struggling.

Only six percent of calls to PANDA's Helpline are from dads and we know from speaking to our community that the idea of talking to someone about their feelings is often just too hard. We want dads to know that admitting they're having a rough time and reaching out for help is the best thing they can do for themselves and their families - and you can help make this happen.

We want to build a comprehensive Mental Health and Wellbeing Plan for Expecting and New Dads in collaboration with our Community and Clinical Champions to understand what dads really need and how to ensure they feel able to reach out if they're struggling.

Can you donate before June 30 to help PANDA better address the needs of expecting and new fathers impacted by perinatal mental illness and build services and resources to support them?

If you can make a contribution towards this project before the end of the financial year you can receive your tax deductible receipt in this year's tax return.

Or if you are part of a business or other organisation that cares and would like to become a PANDA Partner on this project, please reply to this email so we can get back to you to discuss your donation options.

With gratitude and warm wishes,

Julie Borninkhof
PANDA CEO

Dear David.

Yesterday PANDA joined with three other leading Australian agencies dedicated to supporting families to highlight the important need for the business community to understand and respond to the real challenges facing working families through the COVID-19 crisis and beyond.

The new collaboration between PANDA, Parents At Work, Karitane and UNICEF Australia brings together front-line mental health services, experts in parenting support, children's rights and wellbeing, and groups that specialise in assisting businesses to support working parents.

A key focus of the new partnership will be on building effective responses to the findings in the National Working Family Survey which found the competing pressures of working and caring were impacting the wellbeing of Australian families, even before the additional pressures of coronavirus occurred.  The Group has published a new set of nine Family Friendly Workplace recommendations designed to provide employers with a guide on how best to support their employees at this time that it hopes the business community will embrace.

The team at PANDA welcomes the shared commitment of the four agencies to supporting working parents. As the lead organisation supporting and representing expecting and new parents and their families across Australia to understand and recover from perinatal anxiety and depression, PANDA has joined the Group because we understand the critical importance of supporting those on the journey to becoming parents to thrive and mind their mental health.

If you are part of a business, we encourage you to support your staff by getting on board and downloading the Family Friendly Workplace recommendations and implementing them within your workplace. Or if you know an employer or human resources professional, please let them know about this new initiative.

Thank you,

Julie Borninkhof
PANDA CEO

Dear David.

This year PANDA's National Perinatal Mental Health Helpline celebrates 10 consecutive years of Commonwealth Government funding. In that time we have supported hundreds of thousands of expecting and new parents across Australia struggling with mental health challenges.

Over the past six months the Helpline has been able to respond to a significant increase in demand due to COVID-19 and continue to deliver expert, caring and high quality services. We need to continue to flex and grow our services to ensure we are as responsive as possible to the evolving needs of expecting and new parents in these difficult times - and we''d love you to help inform our model of care.

For the past ten years we have referred to our phone based services as a Helpline. Here at PANDA, however, we know the service is so much more than that. We want to make sure the term 'Helpline' sums up what the service means to the people who need it.

We also want to ensure that we continue to build the best possible services for our community and in doing this need to keep our 'fingers on the pulse' of what you, a valued part of our community, needs or how we could operate differently to meet your needs.

As an organisation led by the lived experience of those affected by mental health challenges, and by the health professionals who care for them, we are committed to listening to and representing the voice of our community.

With this in mind, I encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity to inform and improve our services for expecting and new parents.

With gratitude and best wishes,

Julie Borninkhof

PANDA CEO

Dear David.

For the last fifteen years PANDA has been using a week in November to raise awareness about perinatal mental illness and to reduce stigma so those affected can seek help. This PANDA Week we're not just raising awareness, but actually aiming to encourage real and lasting action across the country.

This year, we will:

- Encourage those affected by mental health challenges to seek help and 'tell someone who cares'
- Educate care providers so they know how best to support expecting and new parents
- Help build a broad system of care (which includes PANDA's services) to be able to wrap around people who are struggling to meet their needs. 

We'll be sharing stories and crucial information to show that perinatal illness is complex and every person's experience is different. Our brilliant Community Champions are getting ready to step up once again, to speak out about their experiences in the media and via their own networks, to show just how important it is that those affected know they are not alone and can reach out for help. They will also be joined this year by some of our new Clinical Champions.

We will be hosting two live online events across the week exploring the complex parenting journey: one for care providers and one for families. We'll be sending out more information about these soon, so stay tuned!

We're also going to be launching our brand new PANDA Learning Hub, an online platform for learning and training. The PANDA Learning Hub is just one of the ways we are committed to helping health professionals to support families effectively.

During PANDA Week we're also going to be talking about the ongoing development of our National Perinatal Mental Health Helpline services to ensure we are openly sharing your views and experience of the health system and how to improve it.

We are hearing from our community across the country, from our Champions, from our partners, supporters and other stakeholders, that expecting and new parents facing mental health challenges need to be able to reach out for support at any time of the day or night, and should not face any additional barriers to accessing expert, specialist care to support their mental health.

As the national lead perinatal mental illness organisation supporting and representing expecting and new parents and their families across Australia, we know you want us to ensure our service and supports (and those of our partners) are accessible and equitable, especially to those from hardly reached, rural and remote, and more vulnerable communities. We have heard this message loud and clear and are committed to bringing it to the attention of anyone willing to listen.

We are also dedicated to being open and transparent with our community - including you! - and to bringing our supporters and partners along with us on this incredible journey.

Keep your eye out for more updates on our PANDA Week plans over the coming weeks. Very soon we'll also be sharing our PANDA Week 2020 digital toolkit, with information and materials for you to access and share with your own networks!

It's going to be a big Week! Thanks, once again, for your wonderful support.

Kind regards,
The team at PANDA

Dear David.

Even though COVID-19 restrictions are starting to ease around the country, working from home will continue to be a reality for many people for some time. This includes many expecting and new mums.

Becoming a mum is a huge transition as it is. Going through this journey while facing the kind of disruption caused by COVID-19, while also being required to work from home adds an additional layer of stress.

On our National Helpline and through our networks we have heard of the challenges faced particularly by women with a baby on the way or one just newly arrived in the world, who also need to keep an income coming in under these difficult circumstances. The resources we are launching today are to support those women.
 

Mind your mental health as an expecting
or new mum working from home due to coronavirus.
 

The truth is, it's not really possible for any expecting or new mum to work from home under these kinds of conditions and be as effective as she might be under different circumstances. These resources acknowledge this, while also providing tips on how to manage their emotional wellbeing.

We'll be releasing another resource for dads soon too, but we wanted to get this one for mums out as quickly as possible so it can start doing what we designed it to do: supporting expecting and new mums needing to work from home.

Please share these free resources with your networks or with any expecting or new mums you know who are working from home right now.

Thank you.

With my warmest wishes,

Julie Borninkhof
PANDA CEO

Dear David.

It was a big day yesterday as we launched our 15th PANDA Week! With activities occurring and stories being shared right across the country - on land that First Nations people have occupied and cared for for over 65,000 years - it's really important that we acknowledge the Traditional Custodians throughout Australia, to pay our respect to their elders past and present and to extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across the country.

In this year like no other, people and families across Australia have never felt more disconnected and anxious, and expecting and new parents have been especially vulnerable. So it's more important than ever that as a community, we can wrap around those affected by perinatal mental illness so they can get back to being the parents they want to be.

This week, people and organisations from right across the country - from the perinatal mental health sector, from other health fields, from the community sector, and from business and industry - are coming together to start conversations and to encourage expecting and new parents who are struggling to reach out for help and 'tell someone who cares'.

Today we want to thank everyone who is doing vital work with families, and all our supporters for helping us do this work. And to all of those who hosted or took part in PANDA Week activities yesterday (including a national Pyjama Pram Walk involving more than 250 families across Australia), or shared an 'I care' picture on social media, or donated to support translating information and resources into non-English languages - thank you!

We also want to thank our incredible PANDA Community Champions who are already sharing their stories of recovery from perinatal mental illness with national, state and local media. Our CEO Julie Borninkhof and Board Chair Nicki Batagol have also been busy doing interviews and that looks set to continue into the rest of the week. We've already been able to reach hundreds of thousands of Australians in communities right across the country with important information and stories, and there is much more to come!

It's a big week, and an important one, because the mental health of expecting and new parents matters so much. Thank you for standing with us as we work together to support these families on their journey.

With warm wishes,

The team at PANDA

PANDA Community Champions in the media

Our PANDA Community Champions are already busy sharing their experiences of perinatal mental illness with the media. Big shout out to them all, including Kelly, whose story aired on 7NEWS Adelaide last night.

Dear David.

We are excited to share with you the launch of PANDA''s new podcast for expecting and new parents: Survive and Thrive.

The good things, the exciting things about bringing a baby into your family get a lot of airtime. Survive and Thrive explores some of the feelings and changes that come with parenthood that maybe don't get talked about enough.

Every episode, we speak with a parent who has real experiences to share, and practical tips that they've learned from coming out the other side.

We'll also be dropping bonus content, with wellbeing tools and strategies that you can do in ten minutes or less, brought to you by one of our amazing PANDA counsellors.

We need your help to get these stories playing through as many headphones, laptops and car stereos as possible. Please subscribe to make sure you are notified when new episodes are released, share on social media and of course tell your friends!

If you use Apple Podcasts, please consider writing a review. It goes a long way to helping more people find our podcast.

Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or on the PANDA Website.

Coming soon to Google Podcasts and everywhere else you like to listen.

Wishing you the best,

The team at PANDA

Dear David.

Last week we sent an email out to our PANDA community asking for support for our Mental Health and Wellbeing Plan for Expecting and New Dads. Thank you to those who have provided us with donations to date.

For those that haven't yet had an opportunity to support our dads, I wanted to reach out again today to say there's still time before June 30 for you to help out!

Can you donate before June 30 to help PANDA better address the needs of expecting and new fathers impacted by perinatal mental illness and build services and resources to support them?

Or do you work for a business or other organisation that cares and would like to support this project? If so, please reach out so we can discuss your tax-deductable donation options.

We know that around one in ten expecting and new dads will experience a perinatal mental illness - dads just like Nick. When Nick's baby daughter struggled to feed and didn't sleep very well, and when he and his wife both battled exhaustion and stress, the fact that he couldn't 'fix' things nearly tore him apart.   

"I felt like I was losing my family, like I'd completely stuffed it up," he says. "I was really depressed and just wondered what was the point of being here if I've mucked this up this badly? I couldn't see how I could come back from this."

Many dads feel isolated, stressed, depressed and angry, their relationships and family bonds can break down, and sadly, men can even take their own lives or put others in danger. The trouble is, we know dads often aren't the best at putting their mental health first and seeking help if they're struggling.

Only six percent of calls to PANDA's Helpline are from dads and we know from speaking to our community that the idea of talking to someone about their feelings is often just too hard. We want dads to know that admitting they're having a rough time and reaching out for help is the best thing they can do for themselves and their families.

This is where our Mental Health and Wellbeing Plan for Expecting and New Dads comes in. We want to build the Plan in collaboration with our Community and Clinical Champions to understand what dads really need and how to ensure they feel able to reach out if they're struggling. And then build services and resources to support them.

It's a really important project, and the team here would be just so grateful if you felt you could help today. Your donation before June 30 can help dads like Nick to reach out for help, and you will receive your tax deductible receipt in this year's tax return.

With gratitude,

Julie Borninkhof
PANDA CEO

Dear David.

It's only three months until PANDA Week 2020!

In this most unusual and difficult year it's impossible to know what things will be like in three months' time. We hope things will be improving but there's no guarantee that will be the case. It's likely that the situation will be different depending on where you live.

There are still many unknowns and the situation is evolving every day. However one thing we do know with certainty is that PANDA Week will be going ahead as usual in November, and here at PANDA we firmly believe it is more important than ever. With many expecting and new parents struggling due to COVID-19 and associated restrictions, it's critical that we work together to support families facing mental health challenges at this time.

The theme of this year's Perinatal Anxiety and Depression Action Week is 'Tell someone who cares'.

What does 'Tell someone who cares' mean?

This year, more than ever it's vital that expecting and new parents who are struggling know they're not alone and can reach out for help. And just as importantly, they can know that when they do reach out, they will be supported by those they confide in, whether family members, health professionals, PANDA or other perinatal mental health specialists.

What will we be working together to achieve this PANDA Week?

- To enable people who face unique challenges in becoming parents to access the support they need for their mental wellbeing, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parents, culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) parents, and parents in low socio-economic communities and rural and remote communities.

- To highlight the fact that not all expecting and new parents who need support are able to access it, and working together toward a solution.

- To provide the tools expecting and new parents need in order to successfully find support for their mental wellbeing.

- To provide health professionals with information and language that will allow them to support the mental health of their clients just as much as they do their physical health.

How can you get involved?

You can help by sharing our information and stories with your networks, and helping us build a groundswell of support for making things better for vulnerable expecting and new parents across Australia, would greatly support the work we are doing at PANDA.

Another fantastic way to get involved is to host a fundraising event. If that is something you'd like to do you can submit an expression of interest here.

Thank you so much for your ongoing support, we will be in touch with some more exciting updates soon.

Wishing you the best,

Julie Borninkhof
PANDA CEO