Adapting to virtual delivery: learning from preventative mental health services for expectant parents

But getting the right support at the right time isn’t guaranteed and the pandemic has added more pressure. For many expectant parents, it has meant being away from supportive family and friends, dealing with new pressures and uncertainty around birth arrangements. This combination of challenges can intensify feelings of stress, anxiety and apprehension.

It is vital that expectant and new parents receive the right support at the right time. It’s why we’re asking people to join our Fight for a Fair Start campaign and sign our petition to help us call on governments across the UK to improve support during the perinatal period. And why on the ground, we’ve been working to adapt our support services to be delivered virtually, to ensure we can still be here for them when they need us most. 

Pregnancy in Mind is our preventative mental health service for expectant parents who are experiencing or at risk of mild to moderate anxiety and depression. Through building relationships, knowledge and skills, it helps parents to manage any difficulties they are experiencing.

The virtual programme consists of: 

• A holistic one-to-one assessment of need 

• Introductory group-work session followed by a one-to-one mini-wellbeing check. 

• Four weekly group-work sessions delivered using video conferencing followed by a weekly one-to-one wellbeing-check, where standardised measures are administered to measure levels of anxiety and depression 

• Final one-to-one mini-wellbeing check 

• Option to join a messaging app group chat for peer support set up by practitioners. 

We’ve used interviews, focus groups and analysis of routine data to understand the impact of the service when delivered virtually.

Here’s what we learned:

When delivered virtually the service was still associated with improvements in parental mental health.

We saw improvements in parents’ mental health, with the greatest rate of improvement experienced by parents who reported higher depression and anxiety at assessment. 

Virtual delivery can help us to reach more parents 

By adapting our service for virtual delivery, not only did we keep the service running, but in some areas, we were able to reach beyond existing geographical boundaries to open the service up to a wider group of parents. It helped by removing barriers like travel time and cost, and having access to appropriate venues. In some cases, we extended beyond the immediate local area by partnering with other NSPCC service centres where Pregnancy in Mind isn’t normally delivered, to provide support to parents there. 

Building flexibility into a virtual model is vital 

Teams found that virtual and digital delivery was more intense for practitioners and parents. Session length and content were reduced from two-hour sessions to around 45 minutes to accommodate this. 

Practitioners found one-to-one sessions helped to build a relationship and parental confidence before moving into group sessions with other parents. It also provided an opportunity to tailor the programme to parents’ specific needs not always addressed within the group work. The option of one-to-one delivery is considered for those who do not wish to join a group, or who are unable to due to anxiety levels.

Virtual delivery can remove some barriers to engagement for parents who were particularly anxious 

Delivering the programme virtually allowed the relationship to be built at a pace that suited the parents, and some parents were described as more open and honest in conversation than practitioners felt they would be in a face-to-face group. 

Peer-to-peer support can be facilitated virtually 

While practitioners in some locations noted that it could be difficult for parents to form peer-to-peer relationships within online groups, significant efforts have been made by practitioners to build and support group members’ relationships virtually. This included using a messaging platform to enable group members to keep in touch. It has worked well for some groups of parents who continue to talk with each other after the programme has ended. 

What’s next for Pregnancy in Mind? 

Teams continue to receive referrals for the virtual Pregnancy in Mind service and over the coming months will look to implement a range of improvements to the service. The teams are currently working on ways to increase the number of Black and Asian parents-to-be and partners who attend the programme, diversify referring agencies and reducing attrition rates after referral and assessment. 

To find out more about what we learned from delivering Pregnancy in Mind virtually, read the report on NSPCC Learning. 

Pregnancy in Mind is delivered in Leeds/Bradford, Jersey, Swindon, Tidworth and York. 

To refer to the service, find the contact details of our service centres on the NSPCC website. 

Louise Harrington is development and impact manager at the NSPCC