International Fathers' Mental Health Day

Every year, the day after Fathers' Day globally, we mark International Fathers' Mental Health Day (IFMHD). The event was founded in June 2016 by Mark Williams (UK) and Dr Daniel Singley (USA). Since then, it has grown into a multi-national event, raising awareness about fathers’ mental health. The US team also includes Dr David Levine, a paediatrician based in New Jersey, who also has his own experience of living with postnatal mental health difficulties. Dr Bronwyn Leigh, Director of the Centre of Perinatal Psychology, leads from Australia. The African contribution is led by Linos Muvhu in Zimbabwe. The UK team is led by Mark Williams and myself, with great support from Dr Jane Hanley, a highly regarded health visitor based at Swansea University.

Across that day a series of blogs, stories, information and resources are shared by charities, support groups, health professionals, and families who have experienced the impact of poor mental health in fathers. The events are shared across social media platforms in addition to print and broadcast media. While the aim is to raise awareness, it is also important that these events contribute to real change. In recent years, evidence-based campaigning has influenced policy changes within NHS England for identifying fathers at risk.

IFMHD Website (Postpartum Support International)
Twitter: @dadsMHDay
Facebook: @dadsMHDay
Hashtags: #DadsMHDay #HowAreYouDad

IFMHD 2022

IFMHD 2022 took place on June 20th. There were 4 themes: Stress and stress management, Paternal perinatal mental health, Perinatal loss, and Father involvement. Those themes were visited several times across the day in a wide range of events. Here are just a few of the highlights:

Ahead of IFMHD (Friday June 17th), Action on Postpartum Psychosis ran an online ”dads chat”, hosted by Kieran Anders at Dad Matters UK. You can catch that now on YouTube.

Dad Matters UK also hosted a webinar (at Bolton Wanderers FC), coinciding with their 5th birthday, featuring talks from experts and those with loved experience of challenges in fathers’ mental health. I will add some links to that as soon as I have them.

The wonderful Best Beginnings charity posted this great resource “Looking after fathers’ mental health”, providing links to support - including the excellent Baby Buddy App.

Scott Mair is an Army veteran, keynote speaker, fathers’ mental health campaigner, and expert by experience. He has been working to improve services available to parents. At IFMHD2022, Scott announced a series of monthly online support sessions (Father’s Beacon), starting July 12th 2022.

In addition to a very busy day on social media, and overseeing many of the events, I took part in an Instagram Live with Viv Allen, Founder and CEO at DorPIP (for whom I am a Trustee). I also recorded a great chat with Linda O’Sullivan, CEO at Dorset Mind (for whom I am Patron). You can catch that podcast on YouTube.

You can catch up with the social media for the day via #DadsMHDay on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

IFMHD 2021

For IFMHD 2021 (June 21st) we had held several events. One highlight was a webinar where we will officially launched the fabulous new book “New Fathers, Mental Health and Digital Communication” by Ranjana Das and Paul Hodkinson (see more details about that book on the Fathers’ mental health page). I joined that event to give my perspective.

We posted several videos where I chat with some people for whom fathers’ mental health is important. Megan Reay is undertaking research at University of Oxford, as part of a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology. Her project is exploring fathers’ experiences of mental health after the birth of their baby (and comparing this to men, who are not fathers, but have experienced depression symptoms). Dr Holly Chinnery is running several research projects at Sy Mary’s University, Twickenham, focusing on the important issue of shared parental leave. Finally, Dorset Mind ambassador Dan Willis talks to me about his experiences of becoming a father, shared parental leave (again), bonding with his sons, and the impact of Covid. You can watch all of those videos across my Twitter and Instagram platforms.

This year, I was honoured to include this blog from Best Beginnings CEO, Alison Baum.

In my role as a champion for Make Birth Better, I was permitted to ‘take over’ their Instagram channel (@birthbetter) to talk about why fathers’ mental health is important, what successes we have seen as a result of campaigning and research, and what work still needs to be done.

I also joined Time to Change Birmingham (in association with Birmingham Mind) for a webinar to talk about fathers’ mental health.

As usual, social media was buzzing with activity. Check out the hashtag #DadsMHDay on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

IFMHD 2020

For IFMHD 2020 (June 22nd), the team reflected on progress in the campaigns urging better support for fathers and highlighted new research that has been published. They also considered the impact that Covid-19 has had on the entire family. All of these points are addressed in my blog for 2020. The day was also marked by many friends and colleagues across the UK. Some of those blogs and other media are shared here, while others were posted by those groups and individuals themselves (but you can locate them on the social media platforms, using the hashtag #DadsMHDay). In terms of social media, the day was very successful again. There were over 12 million Twitter impressions for #DadsMHDay, involving 890 participants contributing 2685 tweets!

Other blogs

Suzanne Hodgson is a Lecturer in Nursing at Sheffield Hallam University. She is undertaking a PhD, focusing on 'Transition into Fatherhood'. Suzanne has contributed two blogs for IFMHD2020 'Dads and Covid' and 'Language Matters'.

Joshua Munn and Paul Worthington are CBT Therapists at Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust. They have written this 'Fathers Blog'

Hannah Shalliker works for Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent Wellbeing Service at Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. Her IFMHD blog focuses on the services that they provide for fathers' mental health.

These are just a few that I have posted. Do check #DadsMHDay and/or my Twitter feed @DrAndyMayers to see what other blogs have been posted throughout the day.

Media appearances

One of the most powerful, and popular, online events that day was brilliantly hosted by the Speakers Collective. It featured Mark Williams, Jo Love (a renowned mental health campaigner and blogger), Zac Newman (a mindfulness instructor and a recent dad of twins), and myself. We recorded the session through Zoom, which can now be viewed on Facebook Watch.

I was invited to join a Spotify podcast with my good friend Natasha Devon (an inspirational mental health campaigner), as part of her wonderful Staying Sane series (created as a platform to highlight major issues during Covid).

A new song

We are truly honoured to partner with accomplished performer Ollie Wade, as he releases his song 'Hero' for International Fathers Mental Health Day. He wrote this song when he saw how his own father was struggling with poor mental health. As Ollie says "I want 'Hero' to encourage us all to reach out to our Fathers and offer them support and a shoulder – should they need it. Remember, mental health issues are not a weakness, but an illness that can be managed - at whatever age."

IFMHD 2019

IFMHD 2019 (June 17th) had a busy programme of events. Mark Williams was part of a conference in Blackpool (organised by Better Start Blackpool). You can catch the Twitter conversation for that via #TalkingDads. The Twitter activity for #DadsMHDay was around 8 million impressions for that day alone. Our USA partner, Postpartum Support International included this ‘letter’ which was based on my own blog for IFMHD2019..

IFMHD 2018

IFMHD 2018 (June 18th) was another overwhelming success. On Twitter alone, the hashtag #DadsMHDay achieved over 15 million impressions, with over 300 tweets from 1000 participants. The Facebook Live session (with me interviewing a 'new' dad) has attracted over 2000 views. You can also read my blog for IFMHD 2018.