Work Packages
WP1 Project Management
Project Management is horizontal and is about the overall management and monitoring of project progress. It includes an assessment and evaluation plan, which will consider indicators and changes achieved in several layers of the project.
It also includes synergies with JA MENTOR, and EU4Health Joint Action project that aims to promote mental health by sharing experiences across a wide spectrum, from political initiatives to clinical professional practices.It incorporates evidence-based best practices and adapts initiatives to achieve long-term sustainability, with the goal of enhancing mental health and well-being at both individual and population levels.
The Consortium
This is a horizontal work package, ongoing throughout the project.
Our project Meetings
Kick Off Meeting in Slovenia: 9-10 October 2024
Interim Meeting: Gdansk Poland, 10-11 June 2026
Final Meeting: Cyprus, 9-10 June 2027
WP2 Needs Assessment/Nationwide Study
Objectives:
(1) To understand the prevalence of perinatal mental health issues in CY and Slovenia, risks and determining factors, as well as how these experiences are coped with and managed.
(2) To bring to the forefront the voice of women/mothers and ensure they take the lead as agents in the process of communicating their needs from their “lived experience”, and take an active role in shaping policy and sensitising professionals on mainstreaming mental health needs during healthcare delivery.
(3) To understand health professionals, particularly perinatal and mental health professionals’ knowledge and attitudes on PMH, and identify needs in sensitising and further training professionals.
(4) To identify needs for reforms within the healthcare system to better support maternal mental health in the perinatal and postpartum period, and conduct advocacy activities to bring the needs and recommendations to the attention of stakeholders and decision makers, and advocate for mainstreaming mental health in existing services.
Activities:
This will include desk and secondary research to understand the extant literature and map current good practice in Europe and international. In the direct beneficiary countries, it will also explore prevailing attitudes towards PMH among health professionals and women alike and address the link between risk, protective, and mitigating factors and Perinatal Mental Health and outcomes for women and their adjustment to new parenting (addressed through primary research -focus groups) as well as secondary/bibliographic research to further inform the proposed interventions by available evidence.
When: M2-11 | November 2024- September 2025
Announcement | Questionnaire | Focus Groups
Key Deliverables: National Report Cyprus EN National Report Cyprus GR| National Report Slovenia EN National. Report Slovenia SLO| Synthesis Report EN
WP3 Enhancing Multi-Disciplinarity in Supporting Mental Health of new parents
Objectives:
(1) To create and strengthen alliances between health professionals, particularly perinatal and mental health professionals’, activists, and parents themselves, especially those with “lived” experience, by working together toward a common goal: a program to empower expecting women, so they can safeguard their PMH.
(2) To increase health professionals (perinatal and mental health professionals) knowledge, address attitudes and misconceptions on PMH, and increase their skills to identify, support and manage new mother’s PMH needs.
(3) To empower involved health professionals and parents as potential multipliers who can share knowledge and influence attitudes of peers, and identify needs in sensitising and further training professionals, students, and parents
(4) To develop an evidence-based programme to promote mental health preparedness; multidisciplinary “coaching” approach; prevention/intervention tools: Design, pilot and evaluate prevention program; disseminate results and advocate for its inclusion in healthcare services (target 100 expecting women and a comparison group per country)
(5) To inform and empower new and future parents on Perinatal Mental Health and well-being, their rights, and support options.
Activities:
WP3 will provide an academia-led platform for multiple stakeholders in maternity care to come together in a collaborative, participatory process towards a common goal to advance and improve outcomes and boost protective factors for PMH. Reflecting roles and responsibilities, and facilitated by consortium experts (UG), working groups will be formed who will engage in detailed discussions and proceedings to
(A) synthesize a 6 week empowerment program for expecting mothers, addressing factors related to better PMH and adjustment outcomes
(B) implement, pilot and evaluate the program with 100 expecting mothers in each country (CY and SI), using a comparison group, and a combination of quantitative and qualitative evaluation methods, and
(C) a set of educational tools and resources for healthcare providers on how to safeguard mothers PMH through timely screening, detection and referral.
Coming full-circle, the academia-led multi-disciplinary alliance of stakeholders (formed in WP3), guided by the expert partner (Spain) will promote culturally recommendations, to be advocated for in WP4.
Involved healthcare providers will be empowered on cultivating skills and competences in supporting, safeguarding, screening and referring PMH concerns (top-down approach) and
Women and partners will be empowered in becoming more aware of how to safeguard and claim their PMH in two countries (Cyprus and Slovenia).
When: M12-30 October 2025- April 2027
About the multidisciplinary working group | Empowerment sessions
Key Public Deliverables:
Empowerment Curriculum for Future and Expecting parents – CY & SI | Pilot Interventions Assessment/Reports
WP4 Advocating for mainstreaming Perinatal Mental Health in the national healthcare system/services
Objectives:
(1) To engage stakeholders in discussions and create alliances between professionals, beneficiaries (expectant and birthing women and couples, NGOs-unions that represent them), and decision makers
(2) To stimulate conversation about the shifts in culture from taboo to open discussions about Perinatal Mental Health in discourse that places the expecting/birthing woman as the primary agent, at the forefront.
(3) To include service users, particularly women and their representatives as primary, as active agents in the process of restructuring and improving Maternity services and PMH care they receive.
(4) To create sustainable alliances committed to ensuring promoting and sustaining improved PMH
(5) To identify needs for reform within the healthcare system to better support maternal mental health in the perinatal and postpartum period, and conduct advocacy activities to bring the needs and recommendations to the attention of stakeholders and decision makers, and advocate for mainstreaming mental health in existing services.
Activities:
This will involve advocating for mainstreaming the Empowerment program in healthcare services in the involved countries. It will involve advocate to integrate PMH indicators and targets into existing national working groups/policies (e.g. working groups on Respectful Maternity Care, National Committee on Natural Childbirth, Breastfeeding National Committee, etc.), to systematically screen for risk factors antenatally, and of timely screening for MH conditions and referral needs antenatally.
When: M24-36 October 2026-September 2027
About meetings with Advocacy Stakeholders
Key Deliverables:
National Strategy plan, including Recommendations to share with stakeholders/decision makers CY, SI
Advocacy Outcomes Report
WP5 Public Awareness Campaign
Objectives:
(1) To inform and empower new and future parents on Perinatal Mental Health and well-being, their rights, and support options.
(2) To stimulate discourse and public awareness on the reality and impact of Perinatal Mental Health conditions, and the needs for identification, support and effective management (through mainstream media, social media/viral campaign, podcasts, infographics, video productions). To dissolve myths, and highlight risk and protective factors
(3) Share generated knowledge and tools with other academics and practitioners
Activities:
Capitalising on the rich knowledge on the behavioural determinants and socio-political dimensions of sub-optimal practices or gaps (identified and mapped in WP2 and WP3), WP5 will develop a national (Cyprus and Slovenia) public media campaign to increase awareness about the importance of addressing mother’s PMH in the context of Respectful Maternity Care, and the potential for these to contribute to a positive parenting experience and optimal mental and health postpartum.
The campaign will highlight the role of multiple layers of stakeholders, including the individual, their support system including partners, family environments, community and employers, and wider systemic factors such as support from the state, healthcare options and accessibility, policies such as adequate practical support and parental leave, and referral pathways. The campaign will also raise awareness on social inequalities influenced by factors such as minority or disadvantaged status (e.g. migrant background, poverty, sexual orientation, disability), as informed by the national study findings.
When: Horizontal, M1-36, with actions intensifying over the last year, M24-36 October 2026-September 2027
Key Deliverables:
Project Conferences | Academic Publications | Audiovisual Productions | Public Awareness Campaign
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA). Neither the European Union nor HaDEA can be held responsible for them.
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