What We Heard: Top Priorities for Advancing Perinatal Mental Health in Canada

Over the past three years, Daymark has learned about and reflected back the key issues and needs in this space (for example, see our Perinatal Mental Health Theory of Change). In January 2024, the Daymark Foundation embarked on a process to facilitate the development of a sector-wide strategic plan for addressing perinatal mental health in this country over the next five years. We believe there is energy and momentum to rally around a set of key priorities that will make a meaningful impact on the lives of pregnant and new mothers and birthing people, and lead to improvements in the lives of children, families and, ultimately, society.   

As a first step, we circulated a stakeholder survey to receive input on goals, principles and priorities for advancing perinatal mental health. Below are the key findings.

Survey Results

Respondent Demographics

Overall, we heard from 147 stakeholders across Canada emanating from a variety of roles and experiences.

Vision Statement

87% of respondents agree or strongly agree with the following vision statement: “All individuals and families in Canada experience a mentally healthy pregnancy and postpartum period.” 

Values & Principles

When asked about the values/principles that should underpin any work to improve perinatal mental health, the majority of respondents identified ‘Equitable Access,’ ‘Timely’ and ‘Trauma-Informed’ within their top 5 values. 

Top Priorities for Advancing Perinatal Mental Health Within A 5-Year Timeframe

In terms of what would be most help to improve perinatal mental health over the next 5 years, meeting basic needs, increasing access to psychotherapy, training perinatal providers on mental health and expanding peer support emerged as top priorities in terms of impact and achievability.

Next Steps

We are processing all the information and triangulating it with other sources of information and evidence. Ultimately, we are envisioning a Strategic Plan that is developed and shared back in the following stages, each with greater levels of detail:

We recognize the desire to move to action as soon as possible and are working as hard as we can to share documents out with the field. In the meantime, we would love to hear your thoughts or feedback, and would be happy to share a more detailed summary of the survey results. Feel free to reach out to Vani at vani[at]daymarkfoundation.ca for a chat.