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Emotional Health and Wellbeing for Parents during Covid-19

The Children’s Centre Service supports the mental health of expectant parent and those with young children. One way the service does this is through the Parents Health and Emotional Wellbeing (PHEW) group, delivered across the county.

Rather than delivering these groups face to face, during the pandemic workers adapted the programme to include outdoor walks as well as virtual groups.

A virtual PHEW group in Rushcliffe is being delivered over MS Teams, to give families a platform to meet other mums and babies in a safe, supportive and friendly environment, to build friendships and social support networks. 

The group, led by an Early Years Practitioner, focuses on child development and encouraging social networks to develop, to reduce feelings of loneliness and isolation, while helping mums gain confidence to meet their child's development and emotional needs. Parents set up a WhatsApp group to keep in touch.

One mum said:

"I was struggling to get the baby to sleep at 2am. I commented on the group and it was amazing someone replied, it was so nice to know I wasn’t alone."