Photo sourced from www.abc.net.au
New dads often find themselves excited by the birth of their child, but unprepared and unsure where to turn for support. Research has shown that one in ten men experience psychological distress across the early years of fatherhood and, with 300,000 babies born in Australia each year, there are tens of thousands of fathers at risk of mental health problems.
Deakin University's Centre for Social and Early Emotional Development (SEED) has developed the ‘1 in 10 Men project’ to study ways to reduce mental ill-health among new fathers. This project has been funded by the Australian Government’s Medical Research Future Fund. MAPP’s lead investigator, Associate Professor Jacqui Macdonald, who will also lead the new project, shares that, "We know from systematic reviews that more than half of the interventions used to support men in the early stages of fatherhood actually don't reduce symptoms of depression or anxiety. What we want to do is build an evidence base to inform how to prevent those mental health problems wherever we can."
The 1 in 10 Men project has three key stages:
First, creating a knowledge bank of best practice supports for men in the years before fatherhood
Second, examining existing longitudinal studies to identify the social determinants of fathers' mental health in the early parenting years
Third, establishing a set of guidelines focusing on preventative, evidence-based interventions
Read about 1 in 10 Men and the fathers that it will help on the ABC News website.