Presentations & Training

COVID-19 adaptations to PANDA training activities

PANDA has a long history of delivering face-to-face PANDA workshops and inservice professional development sessions in Victoria, funded by the Victorian Government. We have often had health professionals from other states travel to attend our workshops, and have occasionally also been able to access funding to travel and deliver one-off training or participate in conferences hosted in other states. We can also participate in online professional development activities, such as webinars and conferences, hosted in other states.

In the context of the current COVID-19 public health emergency, all planned PANDA training activities are moving online, including PANDA workshops, which will therefore be accessible to more health professionals around Australia. We are currently in the process of planning workshop content, including addressing how health professionals can best support families who are more vulnerable to perinatal mental illness in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Please sign up to our mailing list, to be notified when our next workshop webinar is scheduled.

The reasons for this are complex. However, one reason is the lack of confidence and knowledge amongst many health professionals about how best to encourage such disclosures in the limited time they often have with patients and clients. PANDA training aims to address these obstacles. It is informed by the latest evidence, our learnings from the PANDA National Helpline, and the lived experience of our volunteers – who often accompany our staff to share their own story as part of training presentations.

What do we cover?

PANDA delivers training or presentations on many areas of knowledge and skill. Recent trainings have addressed:

• Perinatal anxiety and depression – prevalence, spectrum, risk factors and impact
• Tending to the emotional and mental wellbeing of expecting and new parents
• Signs and symptoms of perinatal anxiety and depression – what to listen and look for
• Exploring and responding to risk in the perinatal period – mental illness, family violence, AOD, suicide and risk to child
• Recovery from perinatal anxiety and depression: interventions
• Lived experience stories and case studies
• How to create an environment that encourages disclosure
• How to have difficult conversations with expecting and new parents
• Perfectionism, shame and sense of ‘maternal failure’
• How PANDA can support professionals/volunteers in this work.

PANDA training sessions bring together theory and practice, and can incorporate lectures and powerpoints, videos, lived experience stories, role-plays and observations, and discussion-based learning activities. PANDA also offers professional development workshops three times per year for professionals working with expecting and new parents.

Who can benefit from PANDA training?

Anyone working with expecting parents, parents and families in the perinatal period can benefit from PANDA training. PANDA trains Maternal and Child Health staff and Masters students, midwives and midwifery students, pharmacists, acute mental health teams, drug and alcohol workers, family support workers and social workers, counsellors and psychologists, playgroup and support group facilitators, allied health professionals and volunteers working in other organisations to support new parents (e.g. through in-home support, helplines and facilitating playgroups or support groups).

To request a PANDA training or presentation contact our Community Education and Training Coordinator Sarah Marlowe in the national office on (03) 9926 9032 or sarah.marlowe@panda.org.au , or fill in the online request form.

Feedback from recent sessions includes:

I got a real insight into the journey many women have. Their stories will resonate with me and help me improve the way I do my job. Inspirational. – Midwife

Interactive, accessible, informative and applicable to our service. – Family Support Worker

I loved the reflections and practical examples of real cases and stories. [I learned] the importance of curiosity, exploration and open questions. – Midwife/Maternal and Child Health student

MCH Team Training

PANDA is funded by the Victorian Government to provide in-service training to Victorian Maternal and Child Health Services.

We currently offer four training options, tailored as needed, and are funded to deliver several presentations each year at no cost. Our training options include:

1. How to Open Pandora’s Box: Having difficult conversation to explore and address emotional wellbeing, mental health and associated risks.
2. Perfectionism, shame and a sense of “maternal failure”.
3. Emotional wellbeing education: resources, skills and ideas.
4. PANDA services/Our shared clients.

To book or find out more please contact Sarah Marlowe on 9926 9032 or sarah.marlowe@panda.org.au.