Research has shown that people who love, care for or support a person with depression can experience significant stress and are at greater risk of developing mental health problems themselves. It also shows that they are interested in learning and strengthening coping and self-care strategies to enhance their capacity to support the person in their life with depression.
Partners in Depression (PiD) is a six-week (two hour weekly) education and support program for people who love, live with or care for someone experiencing depression. It is an initiative of Hunter Institute of Mental Health (HIMH), based in Newcastle, and was developed in conjunction with beyondblue: the national depression initiative.
Thanks to funding received from nib foundation, HIMH was able to do a national roll-out of the program from March 2010 to April 2011. This involved giving free program training to over 400 health and community professionals across Australia, sourced through a partnership approach with state mental health, as well as peak carer NGOs, other mental health NGOs and private practitioners in each state.
To date the program has been attended by almost 1,000 participants, 98 percent of whom said they would recommend it to others.
Evaluation of the program also showed a statistically significant decrease in psychological distress experienced by carers (measured by the K10) between baseline and post-program.
PiD has recently been awarded additional funding from nib foundation to consolidate and enhance its work throughout 2012. This funding will allow HIMH to build upon the significant achievements of the national roll-out and ensure a continued provision of a high quality, evidence-based program to the Australian population.
For more information on PiD, to register an interest in training as facilitator or to find out the details of programs running in your area, visit:
(PiD launched a series of television and radio community service announcements in Carers’ Week 2011. The ads can now be viewed on the
PiD YouTube channel)