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Leo's Neonatal

Description:

Leo’s is an award-winning neonatal mental health charity based in the NE of England. 

We have been caring for families since 2018, and what a journey it has been. 

We have evolved significantly during that time. In our inception we began by offering counselling, in the NICU peer support, welcome boxes, vCreate and heartbeat bears to name but a few. 

In our first year we launched the world’s first awareness week, dedicated to neonatal mental health – Neonatal Mental Health Awareness Week.

When the world was plunged into lockdown due to COVID-19, we adapted and found new ways of working – mainly online and remotely, we also saw, a huge rise in mental health worries. 

Our new ways of working, and extensive funding, allowed us to completely revamp Leo’s, and create our dream service. 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we as a service grew by 400% in need – which highlighted very clearly, that neonatal mental health and well-being was an area to be invested in.

Our work was recognised by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and saw us in receipt of the Points of Light Award.

Once COVID had calmed down and life began to resume to some level of normality, we saw that the rise in mental health worries was not slowing down, and that our specific services and skills were needed more than ever.

In 2022 we decided to overhaul our provision, bringing as much of our services in house as possible. 

This allowed us to not only just care for parents, but for the infants and children in our care too. 

Now, our team work through both a Trauma Informed and Sensory Informed Lens, meaning we will always take into account, why you may feel the way you do. 

Trauma shapes our sensory systems, and our sensory systems and trauma shape us each day, it informs the way react to situations, and the way we see and view the world. 

We want to make sure we understand both of these crucial elements when families are in our care – always ensuring that they get the best most rounded care, using expertise of different fields.