Survey: Mums of 0-4 years old: Understanding your experience of Postnatal Depression, Depression and Anxiety
Enter for your chance to win a $100.00 wooden toy gift pack!
Winner will be drawn on March 31 2015
As many of you know, I released the vision and goals for Little Wooden Toybox a few weeks ago and I had planned to spend the next couple of years focussing on building Little Wooden Toybox to get it into a position where it is financially stable before tackling any community projects...
However, the need is here and now. I realised this week that although my goals for the business including the community centres and parenting support are needed (and are still valid and remain the goals of LWT), there is a bigger underlying issue of depression, anxiety and/or postnatal depression that our mums are struggling with; and it's an issue that I can't ignore.
Postnatal depression affects up to one in seven women giving birth in Australia and I am increasingly aware of many mums doing it tough without a lot of support.
More than half of you will know someone who is or has experienced depression in one form or another.
I want to make an impact on young families within the community (read the full vision for the community centres here),
in particular providing support and education around parenting and
special needs. But if we don't address the underlying issues of
mental health; many parents won't be a position to firstly access the education and secondly to implement it.
I
would like to start a community project; perhaps a regular morning tea,
where mums from the community are free to come for a few hours to
connect with other mums and leave feeling loved, understood and heard.
Where judgement is left at the door. Where mums can relate to each
other. Where they can say out loud that they are struggling and realise
that they are not the only ones. And where we can tell them it is ok.
I would like guest speakers to attend these events to tell their stories and share their experiences, not the glossy version but the real 'I shouldn't be thinking that or saying that out loud' version. And in doing so; hopefully 'normalise' the reality of depression, helping mums realise that others are experiencing this too and that support is available from those that have been there and understand.
I will be working with other community groups on this project and already have a few lined up but I will save that for another day...
In the meantime I need your help. Whether you have experienced depression, postnatal depression or anxiety yourself or seen someone else go through it, I would love to have your feedback, thoughts and ideas as to what is needed and what you believe will be useful to our mums today. Dads are welcome to take the survey too :)
If you would like to help or be a part of this project, please email me at tash@littlewoodentoybox.com.au.
Thank you so much for you time
Tash K ox
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MorningTeaProject