Connecting Communities
National Volunteer Week 2025 celebrates the power of volunteering to bring people together, fostering connection and belonging, and building inclusive communities.
Introduction
PANDA is proud to launch our 4th Volunteer Impact Report, for the period 1st of January 2024 – 31st December 2024, where we celebrate the achievements and contributions of PANDA volunteers.
Volunteers and their contributions are valued at PANDA. Volunteers contribute important insights from their lived experience and areas of expertise to improve our resources and services.
Volunteers feed into almost every area of PANDA, in particular our communications, education and strategic planning.
To every volunteer that shares their knowledge, time and experiences, we say thank you.
“We celebrate you, we thank you, and we look forward to doing more with our volunteers in the next year.”
551 PANDA volunteers including:
- 227 Community Champions
- 298 Clinical Champions
- 2 Peer Support Volunteers
- 24 Governance Board, committees, and advisory groups
“Volunteering has been such a rewarding way for me to contribute to helping parents through their hard and challenging times. It has made me feel like I’m a part of this amazing community of strong mums and dads.”
Community Champions
Community Champions
Community Champions have experienced mental health challenges in the perinatal period and use this experience to raise awareness, reduce stigma, and share messages of hope.
Throughout 2024, PANDA Community Champions were involved in 253 activities and volunteered in the following:
Awareness raising:
- Volunteering at Pregnancy, Babies & Children’s Expos around Australia
- Attending networking events
- Participating in online focus groups
- Sharing their lived experience story at public events
- Distributing resources such as posters and pamphlets
Fundraising:
- Perinatal Mental Health Week events
Media activities:
- Online media including SBS
- TV appearances including ABC News breakfast
- Printed media
- Radio appearances
Research & development:
- Consultations such as surveys and online focus groups for the Perinatal Mental Health Week campaign and projects including PANDA’s chatbot.
- Internal content development including sharing insights, completing surveys, and providing quotes for articles, social media content, video resources, educational programs, and online courses.
“Volunteering with PANDA has brought a sense of fulfillment and personal growth to my healing journey. Sharing my story, helping others, and making a difference in others’ lives is a privilege.”
Ann Lanigan (PANDA founder), Nick, Shan, and Abby (PANDA Community Champions) were panelists at PANDA’s conference in May 2024, sharing their stories and experiences with the PANDA community.
Brad shared his lived experience story for Men’s Health Week in June 2024, and appeared with PANDA’s CEO, Julie Borninkhof, on ABC News breakfast.
Lambrina, PANDA Community Champion, representing PANDA at Welcoming the Babies, a local MP event.
Lambrina also shared her story for Perinatal Mental Health Week 2024. Read her story here.
Emma, PANDA Community Champion, presented at the SafeStart conference to 75 clinicians.
Emma has also shared her story with the media and was a key member of the PANDA chatbot working group, helping with its development.
Bec, PANDA Community Champion, contributed to the development of PANDA’s first Reconciliation Action Plan and spoke at the launch.
She has played a large role in educating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parents about Perinatal Mental Health and has volunteered her time to be interviewed multiple times in the media.
Leading with lived experience
Lived experience is at the centre of PANDA and our operations. We ensure everything we do is informed by people who have personal experience of mental health challenges. The person, family, carers, and supporters are central to all we do.
The Community Champions program is imperative to PANDA leading with a lived experience. We share the stories of Community Champions to raise awareness and advocate for perinatal mental health and use their experiences and insights to inform the content and resources that we develop.
Here are some of the PANDA resources that Community Champions contributed their time and insights to using their lived experience during the year of 2024.
- Article: Bipolar disorder in the perinatal period
- Video: Parent and infant units
- Article: Admission to a parent and infant unit
- Article: Tips for preparing for an inpatient mental health stay without your baby
- Article: Making the parenthood transition in a small town
- Article: Neurodiverse parents: Managing sensory overload
- Article: Strategies to manage low mood
- Article: Finding meaningful friendships as a new parent
- Article: Health-related anxiety in the perinatal period
- Article: Prioritising your mental health and wellbeing after having a sick or premature baby
- Article: Financial stress and your mental health
- Article: Parenting and borderline personality disorder
- Short course: Supporting dads in the perinatal period
- Webinar: Birth-related trauma
- Short course: Birth-related trauma
- Short course: Parent and infant units
Contributions to new resources
Community Education program
In 2024, we redeveloped our Community Education program that educates new and expecting parents about perinatal mental health.
PANDA Community Champions were involved in the development of our program, attending workshops and providing insights to help inform content used in the program.
Community Champions are featured in videos that are used as a part of the program. Champions, including Chris and Bao, shared their own lived experience and advice for other parents.
- 15 Champions helped in the development of the Community Education program.
- 5 Champions feature in videos used for the program.
- 6 Champions provided insights used in the program.
- 4 Champions helped inform content through workshops.
Parent and Infant units resources
With the help of our volunteers, we developed a suite of resources to educate new and expecting parents, and healthcare providers about parent and infant units.
This included 2 videos, covering the differences between parent and infant units, sleep schools, early parenting centres and a mother and baby unit, and lived experiences of parents who had stayed in a parent infant unit. We also released a new short course for healthcare providers on PANDA’s Learning Hub – Parent and infant mental health units: a guide to supporting families, and 3 new related articles.
Fiona and Lauren, PANDA Community Champions, bravely shared their experiences of parent and infant units for our video resources and contributed to the development of the courses and articles.
- 14 Champions completed surveys to help inform content.
- 13 Champions shared insights used throughout content.
- 3 Champions shared their perinatal stories.
"I had the support I needed every day to get better and I was able to prioritise myself."
- Lauren
Fiona’s story: Admission to a parent infant unit
Fiona features in our parent and infant video resources and also shared her experience in a parent infant unit for the PANDA website.
“I really hope the stigma with psychiatric facilities begins to be a thing of the past. It is such a beneficial service.”
Perinatal Mental Health Week
Perinatal Mental Health Week provides an opportunity to raise awareness about Perinatal Mental Health.
PANDA’s campaign for Perinatal Mental Health Week 2024 reached parents and healthcare providers nationally and aimed to encourage parents to ‘Make the Call’ and speak with someone about challenges they may be experiencing.
Community Champions were involved in several ways including helping to inform the direction of the campaign through focus groups, sharing their stories, and putting up posters in their local communities to raise awareness.
133 Posters were displayed around Australia by volunteers.
13 Champions volunteered to put up posters to promote PANDA.
7 Champions contributed to focus groups to develop the campaign.
5 Shared their lived experience story for the campaign.
4 Champions appeared in the media.
Shan’s story: accepting support from family and friends
Shan, PANDA Community Champion, was featured in the national campaign for Perinatal Mental Health Week. She was a panelist at the launch of Perinatal Mental Health Week at Parliament House and shared her lived experience story.
"I found it difficult to find language and culturally appropriate resources to give them to them until I found the Chinese language information brochure on the PANDA website.”
Peer Support Volunteers
Peer Support Volunteers
PANDA peer support volunteers are trained professionals who volunteer their time to answer calls on the PANDA Helpline. Peer support volunteers have experienced their own mental health challenges and offer support and hope through shared experience.
In 2024, we had 2 peer support volunteers who contributed over 400 hours in the past year.
We note the smaller numbers of peer support volunteers in 2024. Recruitment was put on hold while we review and redevelop the peer support program in 2025. We look forward to welcoming more peer support volunteers to the renewed program in 2025, increasing and strengthening the valuable work they contribute to PANDA.
Kirsty, Peer Support Volunteer
“Volunteering has really strengthened my connection with like-minded people”
1
Why did you choose to volunteer at PANDA?
2
What do you enjoy most or what is most rewarding about volunteering with PANDA?
3
How has volunteering played a role in strengthening your community, connection and belonging?
Tristen, Peer Support Volunteer
“Being able to be a non-judgmental, and supportive person to them during this time is everything”
1
Why did you choose to volunteer at PANDA?
2
What do you enjoy most or what is most rewarding about volunteering with PANDA?
3
How has volunteering played a role in strengthening your community, connection and belonging?
Clinical Champions
Clinical Champions
Clinical Champions are a network of clinicians and experts working in the perinatal space, who in some cases, also have a lived experience of perinatal mental health challenges.
In 2024, there were 298 PANDA Clinical Champions
PANDA works with Clinical Champions on:
- position statements and recommendation papers on key issues relevant to perinatal mental health in Australia.
- service planning, design and innovation.
- public health (awareness raising) campaigns.
- community and health professional education programs.
- parent and health professional resources.
- understanding of systemic barriers to perinatal mental health care, to inform our work and others.
- government approaches and policy consultation.
PANDA Board Members
PANDA Board Members
The volunteers on PANDA’s board and subcommittees are vital to PANDA’s work.
In 2024, we had 12 board members who contributed to board meetings, committee meetings, and special projects such as the Reconciliation Action Plan working group.
- 672 hours (approximately) contributed at board meetings.
- 58 hours (approximately) contributed at board sub-committee meetings.
Lived Experience Advisory Group
The Lived Experience Advisory Group
In 2024, PANDA formed the Lived Experience Advisory Group. Twelve people were selected to contribute to PANDA’s work using their lived experience and expertise. In October 2024, they had their first meeting.
They will help inform the co-design, review and evaluation of PANDA’s performance in delivering the Strategic Approach and related business plan. This includes providing guidance to the CEO and leadership team on planning and implementation issues and providing advice on emerging internal strategic and community-based challenges.
Our Lived Experience Advisory Group members aren't official volunteers, as they are reimbursed for their time to contribute their lived experience. Some members are also volunteers with PANDA, and others do advocacy and volunteer work on top of participation in the committee. We also recognise and thank them for their contribution to PANDA.
Keshia Arbour, Group Member
Keshia is a busy mum to an energetic toddler and works in medical research development at the University of Melbourne, with a particular focus on supporting medical research bids that incorporate lived experience around mental health and neurodiversity.
She has lived experience of postpartum depression and anxiety and is neurodivergent with an adult diagnosis of ADHD. She is passionate about creating more awareness and knowledge of the unique support required for neurodivergent parents, as well as destigmatising perinatal mental health.