We were delighted to welcome over 220 online delegates plus a fabulous line-up of speakers, to our 6th annual Perinatal and Infant Mental health conference yesterday. The theme ‘Dismantling the barriers: collaborative approaches to perinatal mental health care’ couldn’t have been more apt, following on from Lord Darzi’s report that flagged, among other things, an increased demand in perinatal mental health services and disparities in access and quality of care. ‘Nothing new here,’ you may say. Indeed not. For too long we’ve known not only about the devastating human suffering and economic cost linked to common mental health problems in pregnancy and after birth, but about the disparity in identification and treatment for many, not least black and minority ethnic women, young mothers and those facing domestic abuse, poverty or multiple disadvantages.
We wanted to unpick why the ‘inverse care law’ seems to persist, why those in greatest need continue to have the poorest access to care and to think together about how we could dismantle the barriers of trauma, stigma, discrimination and isolation that can significantly delay or inhibit access to high-quality care.
A packed morning of insightful topics at the iHV 2024 PIMH Virtual Conference
It was an inspirational, at times challenging, and often deeply moving, event that was opened confidently by Jayde Edwards, Young Parent Consultant, with a rallying cry that reaching young parents is possible. Ruth Naughton-Doe of Sheffield University, and Sarah Jeffs, Family Nurse, followed on respectively with the research evidence and case example around approaches to working with young parents.
We then focused on the inequalities in mental health care for Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller Communities with Kirit Sehmbi from the Queen’s Nursing Institute highlighting key touchpoints that can enable healthcare to be accessible from the start. iHV Fellow and former lead nurse for the Cambridgeshire Gypsy Traveller Health Team, Shaynie Larwood-Smith’s passionate advocacy for the often-overlooked needs of this UK ethnic minority community left no-one in doubt that we could be doing better.
‘There are 12 women’s prisons in England. In the year 2022-2023 194 pregnant women were held in prison and 44 women gave birth while being held in custody.’ So began our third session as Birth Companions co-ordinator, Bridget Supple, shone a light on the experiences of care of women in prison and the additional impact many pregnant women and mothers face with contact with children’s social care. Shanice Redwood continued to focus our attention on the devastating impact of child-removal, sharing powerful insights from the Hertfordshire University ‘Lost Mothers’ study and Ann Chadwick, Clinical Lead, shared insights into how her health visiting service has improved experiences for mothers in one of England’s six prison Mother and Baby Units.
Our fourth session focusing on the perinatal mental health needs of Asylum-Seeking Families was beautifully introduced by Kemi Ogunlana, who generously wove in details of her own story whilst highlighting the key role experts by lived experience play if research is to be truly co-produced. The inspiring work of the Happy Baby Community was shared by Jill Miller, demonstrating the impact that grassroots organisations can make, whilst Lisa Gordon showcased her Specialist Health Visitor role and personal observations on what can really make a difference.
Sian Drinkwater with her lived experience guests rounded off our event, sharing progress on the wonderful toolkit produced earlier this year by the Maternal Mental Health Alliance that helps practitioners to amplify ‘seldom-heard voices’ and shape perinatal mental health care at local levels.
Early feedback from delegates indicates how necessary it is to come together, to think together and to find solutions to improve outcomes for families together.
“What a fantastic half day I’ve had. The speakers were passionate, inspirational and generous in sharing their research and experience. The facilitation was professional, warm and welcoming. Thank you for another great PIMH event”
“Thanks very much for an excellent conference, again great topics, excellent speakers. Lots to go away with and apply to practice, service development etc.”
“Always rely on the excellent and professional content from iHV”
“This has been such an informative and moving conference hearing the experiences of the most marginalised mothers close to our heart and work as well as the great work going on to dismantle the barriers to support. Thanks to all the presenters #IHVPIMH2024 #MMHA “
“Found it very useful and extremely relevant. Lots for me to take back to our local PIMH networks to work on moving forwards.”
Our sincere thanks to all our speakers for so generously sharing their expert experience and knowledge and to all our delegates for joining us.
See more upcoming iHV events here.
See our upcoming programme of ‘iHV Spotlight Learn’ virtual workshops here.
