Fittingly coinciding with National Perinatal Mental Health Week, Gidget Foundation opened a new space in Lismore on Friday at the Uralba Street Tresillian clinic. It is the 20th Gidget House to open in NSW. The space is freshly renovated, comfortable and well-equipped.

Gidget House locations provide free individual psychological counselling services for expectant and new mothers and their families. It is Australia's largest service provider of specialist, perinatal psychological support with a network of over 114 clinicians Australia-wide delivering these services. 

The Gidget Foundation partnership with Tresillian makes a lot of sense. The Tresillian services here at Lismore include child and family health nurses who offer parents support on issues such as infant sleep, settling difficulties, feeding and nutrition challenges, toddler behaviour, and Perinatal anxiety and depression.

“This partnership enables individuals to receive support here rather than having to travel hundreds of kilometres to access it. This service will complement the specialist level of service that we deliver to families every day here at Tresillian Family Care Centre,” said Rachel McLean, operational nurse manager for Tresillian.

“Our data demonstrates that a high proportion of parents reaching out (to Tresillian) for support are also experiencing mental health issues such as postnatal depression and anxiety. So the addition of Gadget House co-located is a huge benefit to the families and the individuals that come through these doors with the offering of free psychologist services.”

Zarnie Berthold, one of the founders of Gidget house, explained how the Gidget Foundation came to be by sharing an intimate story of her friend Louise Black (nicknamed Gidget) and the tragic story of post-natal depression that claimed her life.

“After she passed we were all in a real state of shock, because we didn't really see the signs (or we didn't recognise the signs) and we didn't really understand just how much she was suffering."

"We came together a week or so after her service in the hope that we could collectively do something to ensure that what happened to Gidge would not happen to others. We started to meet regularly about once a month, just around the kitchen tables. We bonded over our grief, we shared stories of her life and we laughed and cried. And then we got really busy."

"We researched services that existed for those that needed specialist perinatal support. And we realised almost immediately that there were very few and it was almost impossible to access the service if you were a mother-baby unit.”

From this, The Gidget Foundation was born, and has rapidly expanded across the state and beyond. This week the Gidget House services clicked over 70,000 free appointments.

At the Lismore opening, Kaiden Powell, local First Nations man, spoke about his personal struggle with perinatal mental health and the journey of seeking help and recovery. The stigma and lack of education around perinatal mental health in fathers is significant. He spoke of the value of networks such as SMS For Dads and Deadly Dads in supporting new fathers through difficult times. His own organisation Changing The Odds aims to educate and empower parents to overcome their circumstantial disadvantages.

The Hon Rose Jackson MLC, Minister for Mental Health was present and spoke to the generational impacts of services like those provided by Gidget House.

“This work is leaving a really powerful legacy not just for the parents who have gotten the skills, but that baby's life has changed. There are thousands of babies whose trajectories in life will be improved because their parents were able to access services that gave them the capacity to deal with whatever they were struggling with.”

If you, or someone you know, could benefit from talking to a professional about your mental health following the birth of a baby, you can speak to your GP about a referral to Gidget House which is located at 46 Uralba Street.