{"id":245,"date":"2026-09-14T10:42:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T09:42:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/funded-research-impact\/?p=245"},"modified":"2026-09-14T10:42:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T09:42:17","slug":"extending-the-impact-of-act-pnmh-psychological-interventions-for-perinatal-mental-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/funded-research-impact\/extending-the-impact-of-act-pnmh-psychological-interventions-for-perinatal-mental-health\/","title":{"rendered":"Extending the Impact of ACT-PNMH: Psychological Interventions for Perinatal Mental Health"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Access to specialist perinatal mental health (PNMH) support remains limited for many women and birthing people experiencing anxiety and depression during pregnancy and early parenthood.<\/h3>\n<p>Our latest impact funding blog highlights how <strong>Dr Cerith Waters<\/strong> and colleagues are working with NHS and international partners to expand access to ACT- PNMH through their ACT For PNMH project. This is a Cardiff University developed intervention that is helping widen the availability of evidence based psychological support.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/funded-research-impact\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/684\/2026\/09\/self-compassion-col-smaller.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1154\" height=\"1231\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Perinatal anxiety and depression can have a significant impact on women, birthing people, babies and families.<\/p>\n<p>ACT-PNMH is a psychological intervention developed by Cardiff University researchers to support women experiencing perinatal mental health difficulties and improve access to effective care during pregnancy and early parenthood.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers worked with NHS and international partners to expand ACT-PNMH across Wales, England, Malaysia, Pakistan and the USA.<\/p>\n<p>The project trained practitioners, translated materials into Urdu, developed culturally adapted resources, and supported knowledge exchange to help embed the intervention within healthcare services and reach new communities.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/funded-research-impact\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/684\/2026\/09\/Untitled-design-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1220\" height=\"686\" \/><\/p>\n<p>IAA funding enabled the team to extend the reach of the ACT-for-PNMH project beyond the original research.<\/p>\n<p>The funding supported practitioner training, cultural adaptation and international delivery, helping embed the intervention within NHS services and expand its use in Pakistan, the USA and Malaysia.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The work has since been recognised through a Health and Care Research Wales Research Impact Award.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Thought Fusion \/ Defusion for Perinatal Mental Health\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0IB4BXC17rM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Further information<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>ACT-PNMH received the Health and Care Research Wales Research Impact Award in 2025 in recognition of its contribution to improving access to perinatal mental health support. <a href=\"https:\/\/healthandcareresearchwales.org\/about\/news\/inspiring-welsh-research-awards\">https:\/\/healthandcareresearchwales.org\/about\/news\/inspiring-welsh-research-awards<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cardiff.ac.uk\/news\/view\/2990773-celebrating-innovation-and-impact-in-health-and-social-care-research\">https:\/\/www.cardiff.ac.uk\/news\/view\/2990773-celebrating-innovation-and-impact-in-health-and-social-care-research<\/a><\/p>\n<p>For more information about ACT-for-PNMH project, including training and implementation resources, visit the website: <a href=\"https:\/\/eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com\/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.actforperinatalmh.com%2F&amp;data=05%7C02%7CLambertPW%40cardiff.ac.uk%7C4a73ca5cf4d2474f668c08ded229d659%7Cbdb74b3095684856bdbf06759778fcbc%7C1%7C0%7C639179274371940785%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=G8jOtLsETzUpjbuEjwCO73hCZ5JJvxwzpwcNDrtmWPQ%3D&amp;reserved=0\">www.actforperinatalmh.com<\/a>\u00a0or contact Dr Cerith Waters (<a href=\"mailto:watersc@cardiff.ac.uk\">watersc@cardiff.ac.uk<\/a>).\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Animations available at: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@ACTforPerinatalMH\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@ACTforPerinatalMH<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Thank you to:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Dr. Nicholas Pang (lead for team in Malaysia)<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Tracey Vozar (lead for team in Chicago)<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Brie Khort (lead for team in Washington)<\/p>\n<p>Thanks also to graphics and animations team: Dr. Abi Seabrook (graphics for the project) and Casey and Lucy (animations team)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Access to specialist perinatal mental health (PNMH) support remains limited for many women and birthing people experiencing anxiety and depression during pregnancy and early parenthood. Our latest impact funding blog [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":7183,"featured_media":246,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,70],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mrc","category-school-of-psychology"],"meta_box":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/funded-research-impact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/funded-research-impact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/funded-research-impact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/funded-research-impact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7183"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/funded-research-impact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/funded-research-impact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":282,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/funded-research-impact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245\/revisions\/282"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/funded-research-impact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/funded-research-impact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/funded-research-impact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/funded-research-impact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}