2002 International International Biennial Scientific Meeting

EXPERIENCE OF PROVIDING A SOCIAL NETWORK SERVICE IN SOUTH WEST SYDNEY

Stephen Matthey and Bryanne Barnett

Paediatric Mental Health Service, South West Sydney Area Health Service

Stephen.matthey@swsahs.nsw.gov.au

Objectives: While there are many different parent groups on offer to new mothers, previous research in Sydney had suggested that social isolation was still a significant stressor for many new parents. This may be because few mothers, apart from the confident ones, actually access such groups. This paper will discuss the setting-up of a different kind of parent group, and describe some of the difficulties we experienced in doing this. Evaluation of the service will also be reported, as well as some data pertaining to women's social networks in this part of Sydney.

Methods: The social network service consisted of three components: weekly pramwalks, weekly parenting talks, and a monthly newsletter. This newsletter contained personal information of the participants. Women (n = 90) were recruited into this service from Early Childhood Clinics. On recruitment they completed a Network Questionnaire, an EPDS, and a questionnaire assessing their experience of motherhood. Six months after recruitment the women completed these same measures, as well as an service evaluation measure.

A separate sample of women (n = 60) who were also attending Early Childhood Clinics acted as a control group for the data collected on the Network Questionnaire.

Results: Comparison of the women who participated in the Network Service with the Control sample indicated that they did not differ on many networking variables. Thus, other than the participating wanting to get to know more people, their network size, the percentage of women who had made friends with people since the birth, and the locality of their friends was similar to the general population of women with infants.

The uptake rate of the women into the different activities of the network services was low. This will be discussed, with reference to possible strategies that could facilitate better uptake. The overall evaluation of the service suggested that for many women there was an improvement in their sense of isolation, and sense of confidence as mothers, even if they had not attended the pramwalks or parent talks, but had just received the newsletter.

Conclusions: While the provision of different parenting activities for 'new' mothers may not result in many interested women attending such activities, there are benefits that can still accrue for these women if they are made to feel a part of a local community of 'new mothers'. The issue of whether the provision of such networking services facilitates the uptake by women with less confidence or a less outgoing personality is critical when planning such a service.