Publish date: 8 March 2024

NHS communicate winner graphic

We’re thrilled to announce that West London NHS Trust picked up an award at last night’s NHS Communicate Awards for its "Mother Tongue" initiative in Promoting Diversity and Inclusion in Communications.

The project, “Mother Tongue, Motherhood, and Mental Health”, empowers women from ethnically diverse backgrounds to seek maternal mental health support through the sharing of their own experiences of perinatal mental illness in their native languages.

The films were one of a number of strands of work developed in partnership with the Trust’s dedicated perinatal and communications teams, experts by experience, and filmmaker, Jodie Holland, to break down barriers and support access to the West London Perinatal Service. The short films have been screened at events across two of ur local boroughs where the stars of the film, their families, NHS professionals and partners, and the local community attended.

Embracing the multitude of languages spoken within our communities, the short films were created in a variety of languages including Urdu, Polish, and Punjabi, and highlight that language should not be a barrier to quality healthcare.

Congratulations to everyone involved in the project!

You can watch the playlist on YouTube here.

Find out more about the West London Perinatal Service here.