Gidget Foundation Australia drives workforce expansion for families in need

Demand for perinatal mental health services has continued to surge year-on-year since the start of the pandemic. Gidget Foundation Australia (GFA) delivered 59 per cent more clinical treatment services in 2021 than in 2020, which was already up by 57 per cent on 2019. In September 2022 alone, GFA delivered 42 per cent more appointments for perinatal clients than in September 2021.

In response to this demand, and in an effort to address the nationwide shortage of specialist perinatal mental health clinicians, GFA have launched the Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Training and Development Institute. Thanks to the support of the Commonwealth, Sydney North Primary Health Network and the NSW Government, GFA developed this program to address the gap in the perinatal mental health workforce and provide perinatal mental health treatment and support to families to meet the increasing demand.

Since the inception of this initiative in 2021, GFA have recruited seven clinical psychologists with extensive experience in perinatal mental health treatment, to train and supervise 27 perinatal mental health trainee clinicians. Thanks to this workforce development program, 390 families have been removed from the GFA wait list and into treatment.