I’m excited to share with you about Pregnancy & Postpartum Support MN. I’m even more excited to tell you that their Associate Director, Crystal Clancy, will be our guest on Monday evening. We will be discussing how a Postpartum Helpline functions and what goes into getting it up and running.
According to Crystal, here’s a bit about the organization:
How we started:
We started in 2006 as a small group of mental health practitioners with a desire to support new /expectant parents who are struggling with mental health difficulties. Our goal was to provide resources and education to professionals and new/expectant parents.
What we do: What PPSM offers that is unique are two things:
1) The resource list for practitioners and parents. This is a list of vetted mental health practitioners and psychiatrists who specialize in perinatal mental health. We also list support groups, classes, and are working on adding alternative options.
2) The HelpLine, which is a call in line for parents and providers who are looking for resources and ongoing support. They can be paired with a trained peer volunteer, most of whom have survived their own experience with a PMAD, or know someone very close to them who has. The peer volunteer offers phone support, and we make it clear that it is NOT a substitute for therapy, but more of a “am I going to get through this?” helping hand.
Planned events:
The annual Beyond the Baby Blues Conference in June, sponsored by NAMI; we are also hoping to pull together a 5K for next fall! In addition, we try to have “Meet and Greets” 3-4 times per year for people who would like to know more about PPSM and how they can get involved.
How people can donate/volunteer:
On our website (which should be back up and running soon), or they can contact us through our Facebook page and we can find a workaround that they can donate to Paypal for PPSM or find out how they can volunteer.
Here’s the link to PPSM’s FB page. Click there to find out more about them and nose around their social media presence. As Crystal shared, the website is under construction at this time and they hope to have it up and running soon.
I hope y’all have a great weekend! Crystal and I are looking forward to chatting with you on Twitter on Monday night at 8:30pm ET, 7:30pm CT, and 5:30pm PT. Just follow the hashtag #PPDChat. See you there!