Gai Brodtmann (Canberra, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

During Postnatal Depression Awareness Week in November, I had the great honour of visiting PANDSI, which provides support to families in my electorate of Canberra. PANDSI aims to improve the perinatal mental health of women, men and their families in the ACT through counselling and support. As we know, perinatal depression and anxiety affect up to 20 per cent of families, and the work that is done by PANDSI is vital in helping families to understand and manage their experiences, providing strategies to cope and recover.

Last month's annual general meeting was a chance to reflect on the work of PANDSI over the past year, and it was a chance for me, on behalf of all Canberrans, to say thank you to all the staff, volunteers and supporters for the wonderful service that PANDSI provides to my community.

It was also a great opportunity to say thank you and farewell to outgoing PANDSI President Dr Marian Currie. Organisations such as PANDSI simply could not exist without the hard work of dedicated individuals like Marian. Marian has been on the board of PANDSI since 2002 and has a background in nursing, midwifery, neonatal nursing, lecturing and research. In the early days of PANDSI, there was no funding from ACT health. It slowly got funding to run support groups. Marian kept PANDSI together through thick and thin. Marian, thank you for all the great work you have done in building up PANDSI and thank you for the incredible support you have provided to so many Canberra families. We wish her all the best for her retirement.