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What have the new mothers, public health nurses and home visitors told us about the Strategy?

According to evaluation results in Phase I of the Project, training the public health teams in using Towards Flourishing successfully resulted in increased mental health literacy and a shift to more positive attitudes about mental health promotion. The confidence of public health nurses and home visitors in addressing the mental health needs of their clients also increased with training.

Women who participated in the mental health screen acknowledged the benefits of asking about mental health/mental illness. They found that it provided an opportunity to discuss mental health, to increase self-awareness and to gain an understanding of the prevalence of mental health issues in their communities. Women in the Families First Home Visiting Program (FFHV) and public health staff rated the embedding of a mental health intervention in the Program as both acceptable and useful. The Toward Flourishing Project intervention was viewed as a potentially good fit for the Program because of the trusting relationship and safe environment families have with home visitors. The mental health topics were viewed as beneficial because they could be readily added to the existing curriculum allowing for easy implementation. Ensuring that the topics are culturally safe was emphasized for all families, particularly for Aboriginal families.