Tags: MMHA

Political parties in Northern Ireland agree landmark maternal mental health Consensus Statement

Despite the stalemate in Stormont, all political parties in Northern Ireland have co-signed a ground-breaking Consensus Statement, drafted as part of the Maternal Mental Health Alliance Everyone’s Business campaign, committing to close the gap in specialist mental health provision for women during pregnancy and the first year after giving birth.

England, Scotland and Wales have faced similar challenges with their specialist perinatal mental health services, but in recent years each have seen significant improvements due to specific and targeted investment. While stakeholders in Northern Ireland have shown support in principal, until now a formal commitment had not been made.

Key facts:

  • Women and families in 80% of Northern Ireland cannot access specialist perinatal mental health community services and there is no Mother and Baby Unit in Northern Ireland.
  • All political parties in Northern Ireland have now officially signed a historic statement agreeing to work together to change this.
  • The Maternal Mental Health Alliance (MMHA) is calling on the parties to unlock urgently needed funding for women and families requiring an inpatient Mother and Baby Unit and specialist community services in every Health Trust.
  • Untreated perinatal mental illnesses can have a wide range of effects on the mental and physical health of women, their children, partners and significant others.
  • In severe cases, perinatal mental illness can be life-threatening: suicide is a leading cause of death for women in the UK during the perinatal period.
  • The economic cost to society of not effectively treating perinatal mental illness far outweighs the cost of providing appropriate services.
  • If perinatal mental health problems were identified and treated quickly and effectively, these serious and often life-changing human and economic costs could be avoided.

The MMHA – a UK-wide coalition of over 90 organisations including the Institute of Health Visiting – together with 18 Northern Ireland-based organisations, including NSPCC NI and AWARE, welcomes the parties’ commitment to deliver life-saving perinatal mental health services in Northern Ireland.

Read MMHA's full press release

Professional bodies and maternal mental health experts welcome report highlighting need for more maternal mental health experts

The Maternal Mental Health Alliance (MMHA), the Institute of Health Visiting (iHV),  the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), and the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) are delighted the NHS Benchmarking report on Universal Perinatal Mental Health Findings was published on Friday 14 September.

Prior to this study, information on service provision and staffing of universal perinatal mental health (PMH) services was not available at a national level. The study sought to gain an understanding of the extent of PMH provision in universal services across England, supplementing an annual audit of Specialist PMH services undertaken by the NHS Benchmarking Network for NHS England.

The data collected from providers suggested that:

  • Capacity in universal services is very limited and does not provide the necessary broad base from which the Specialist PMH services can operate effectively and efficiently as a secondary care tier.
  • The provision of specialist perinatal mental health care within universal services is highly variable across England, with some areas having no, or limited, provision (obstetric & midwifery providers 61%; health visiting providers 30%).

Specialist provision within universal services is necessary to coordinate, inform and support evidence based PMH care across the whole service, and therefore offers a clear reflection of the care women are able to access. The large gap in health visiting PMH capacity was particularly evident, with 70% of providers having no specialist provision within the service.

If we are to deliver on the ambition of the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health, attention must be paid to the full spectrum of need. This report is critical because it focuses on the universal element, where the vast majority of women need to receive their care. Most recognition of mental health problems and risks, most prevention and early intervention, can only be coordinated and provided within universal services. Universal services are therefore a crucial element of the PMH care pathway at every local level and have the potential to create great savings in relation to both human and economic costs in the short and long term.

Dr Cheryll Adams, Executive Director at the iHV, said:

 “The Institute of Health Visiting warns that the real state of today’s health visiting support for mothers suffering with perinatal mental illness (PMI) may be significantly worse than that found by the NHS Benchmarking report based on data from 2016, as there have been further cuts to the workforce and the development of a significant postcode lottery of services up and down the country. Health visitors across the country nevertheless continue to strive to deliver an excellent service to children and families, and will do everything in their power to promote good family mental health.”

 Alain Gregoire, Chair of the MMHA, said:

“There has been excellent progress in funding specialist perinatal service provision across England, but we know that specialist services alone are not enough. All women in pregnancy and postnatally should have equitable access to the support, prevention and treatment they need for their mental health as much as for their physical health. This report shows that investment is essential to ensure that there are sufficient, well-trained staff across universal services so that women get the care they should expect from the NHS, and our children can get the best start in life.”

Janet Fyle, Professional Policy Advisor at the Royal College of Midwives, said:

“Whilst there is progress in some areas, there is still a lot more to do.  Our survey showed that we remain seriously short of specialist maternal mental health midwives and services to support women with mental health problems and needs in the community and in their homes. There is also a need to ensure that all midwives involved in the care of pregnant women receive adequate training, so that they can identify women with mental health problems and refer them appropriately for care and support as required.”

Dr Alison Wright, Consultant Obstetrician and Vice President of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists said:

“Despite maternal mental health being a key priority of the Government, this report shows the extreme pressure faced by obstetricians and psychiatrists, midwives and health visitors who provide perinatal mental healthcare. Healthcare professionals are usually the first point of contact that a woman reaches out to and we must ensure that all staff involved in the care of women during pregnancy and beyond, have the relevant education and training in perinatal mental health. Every maternity unit across the country should have in place a clearly defined care pathway for referring women to local specialised perinatal mental health services which all women can access when needed.”

Collectively, we will continue to push for equitable access to evidence based PMH care for women with mental health problems and their families through robust universal services alongside the development of specialist PMH services – women and their families need both. We support the call for all maternity and health visiting services (and GP services) to be sufficiently resourced, so that all professionals across universal services have sufficient capacity, competence and confidence to deliver top quality proactive mental health care to all families. Furthermore, we advocate that these healthcare professionals should be supported by having lead specialist professionals/Champions from within their respective professions in every organisation.

Download the NHS Benchmarking report on Universal Perinatal Mental Health Findings

Background Information to the report

In January 2017, the NHS Benchmarking Network was commissioned by Health Education England, funded by NHS England, and partnered with the iHV, RCOG and RCM to complete a stocktake of perinatal mental health (PMH) care within maternity and health visiting services. Data collection took place from February to May 2017 and referenced the year January to December 2016. Universal PMH services in this report included obstetrics, midwifery and health visiting.

There was a high response rate from organisations across England, with numbers of responses by service type as follows:

  • Obstetric services 141
  • Midwifery services 123
  • Health visiting services 88

 In total, the following specialist practitioners were identified in the study:

  • Obstetric services = 40.8 WTE (1.3% of total obstetric capacity)
  • Midwifery services = 228 WTE (1.4% of total midwifery capacity)
  • Health Visiting services = 60.6 WTE (0.78% of total health visiting capacity)

Bookings now open for Maternal Mental Health Alliance Conference 2018

This year’s theme is Diversity – understanding and reaching the missing families.

  • Date: Thursday 6 September 2018
  • Location: Imperial College London

The Maternal Mental Health Alliance (MMHA), of which the iHV is an active member, hopes the 2018 conference will start a conversation about diversity and provide an opportunity to focus on identifying and breaking down the barriers to mental health services for everyone.

Go to MMHA website for more info

The conference will:

  • provide an overview of the latest research on families experiencing barriers in accessing perinatal mental health support
  • highlight the latest thinking and interventions to meet the needs of hard to reach communities
  • share the stories of women from diverse backgrounds
  • bring together practitioners and experts from adult, child, maternity, social care, early years and perinatal mental health services to discuss diversity and perinatal mental health problems
  • showcase Mums and Babies in Mind (MABIM), Everyone’s Business and Maternal Mental Health Alliance and A Better Start (ABS)
Go to MMHA conference bookings page

New MMHA campaign maps launch today!

New maps launched today by the Maternal Mental Health Alliance’s Everyone’s Business Campaign show that pregnant women and new mums in a quarter of the UK still cannot access lifesaving specialist perinatal mental health services, which meet national guidelines.

The Maternal Mental Health Alliance welcomes the encouraging signs of progress seen in some parts of the UK but raises the alarm: there is not progress for all parts of the country at the same rate, meaning right now, women and families still face a postcode lottery.

According to the new data, pregnant women and new mums in 24% of the UK still have no access to specialist perinatal mental health services (rated red on the map). The maps show that whilst many more women now live in an area coloured green on the map, meaning specialist perinatal mental health services are available in their locality, it is unacceptable that so many women and their families still cannot access essential care.

More than 1 in 10 women develop a mental illness during pregnancy or within the first year after having a baby. Women with the most severe perinatal illnesses need to be able to access vital specialist services wherever they live. If left untreated these illnesses can have a devastating impact on women and their families. In the most serious cases, perinatal mental illness can be life threatening: suicide is a leading cause of death for women during pregnancy and one year after giving birth.

When a woman lives in an area where she is able to access specialist services, with a team of trained staff, it can make all the difference to her quality of care, speed of recovery and support both for her and relationships with her baby and family.

Dr Cheryll Adams CBE, Executive Director iHV, said:

“The Institute of Health Visiting is fully committed to supporting  the Maternal Mental Health Alliance’s Everyone’s Business Campaign and, as active members of the Alliance, the Institute is delighted to see the progress which has been made to provide access to specialist perinatal mental health services for all mothers.

“It is unacceptable that there is still a lack of parity for mental health in the perinatal period and that suicide is still a leading cause of maternal death. These new maps show that much has been achieved, and the great strides are to be applauded – but we must press on, there is still much to do to turn the map green.

“Women with severe perinatal illnesses require timely referral to specialist perinatal mental health services, and health visitors are crucial – to not only accessing specialist perinatal mental health services, but they also work upstream, often preventing a potential mental health problem becoming a mental health crisis/severe mental illness. Thus, alongside supporting the call for continued funding of specialist perinatal mental health services, the Institute is urging additional investment to ensure there is a confident, competent, capable and committed universal health visiting service at every local level.

“To ensure that every mother (and her family) does indeed, get the right help, in the right place, at the right time, we need properly funded and supported pathways of care at every local level. It is most definitely #everyonesbusiness”

Download the UK map as well as maps for England, Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland on the MMHA website

Read the MMHA press release

 

iHV delighted to support Maternal Mental Health week

At the start of UK Maternal Mental Health (MMH) week (1-7 May), the iHV is delighted to announce that we are working with Action on Postpartum Psychosis (APP), a national charity supporting women and families affected by Postpartum Psychosis (PP).

In order to ensure that future mental health care of women is what women want/need, we ensure that the APP voice is central to our training. Women, who are experts by experience from APP, deliver on the iHV Perinatal Mental Health (PMH) programmes so all the health and social care professionals we train understand what they need to do to best support women and their families.

The death of Alice Gibson-Watt has lessons for us all and, as part of the Maternal Mental Health Alliance, both the iHV and APP are committed to improving outcomes for women and their families. Key to this is learning from experts by experience and their families. The iHV was delighted to hear Hannah Bisset (APP Northern Regional Representative) raising parity of esteem for mental health through sharing her story on BBC Radio 4 on Sunday. Listen to her from minute 32.45 here.

iHV supports MMHA response to DH’s Safer Maternity Care report

The iHV supports the Maternal Mental Health Alliance’s (MMHA’s) response to yesterday’s publication of the Department of Health report ‘Safer Maternity Care: Next steps towards the national maternity ambition’.

MMHA highlights the mention of perinatal mental health in the report (on page 17) – but would really like to push for mums’ mental health to be embedded across all of the actions coming out of the report. Maternity safety is not just physical health: unless women’s mental health is looked after, their and their babies’ lives could also be at risk.

Dr Cheryll Adams, Executive Director iHV said:

“iHV supports the push by MMHA to keep maternal mental health at the forefront of the government’s drive to improve maternity care.  We welcome the implementation of this plan, including maternal mental health, and call on the government to ensure that specialist mental health support is available in every maternity /health visiting service to provide support to every mother and her family who require this service.”

Dr Alain Gregoire, Chair of the Maternal Mental Health Alliance, commented:

“We welcome the announcement by the Secretary of State of a Safer Maternity Care action plan and the inclusion of improvements in perinatal mental health care in this. Mental illnesses are the most common serious health complications of pregnancy and the postnatal period, and a major cause of maternal death. There has been no sign of improvement in the effects of these illnesses on mothers and their babies in the past decades, despite significant improvements in physical health outcomes.”

Read Dr Alain Gregoire's full response and suggestions about how mental health could be embedded into the key themes and recommendations in the report

 

MMHA update: Independent Evaluation launch and funding announcement

As a partner and a member of the Maternal Mental Health Alliance (MMHA) operations group, the iHV is delighted to share this good news.

Launch of independent evaluation of Everyone’s Business Campaign

Today, Tuesday 19 July, sees the launch of the independent evaluation of the MMHA Everyone’s Business Campaign.

This evaluation highlights the substantial impact the campaign has had; the reasons for the impact, and where the campaign will need to focus in the future.

Please find below the direct links to the Briefing Paper (just two pages) and the full report:

2 page briefing paper, with a summary of the report's main findings

Copy of the full independent report

Please use #everyonesbusiness when mentioning in social media!

MMHA Everyone’s Business Funding announcement

Also, hot off the press, fantastic news! Comic Relief confirmed that the follow-up funding for the MMHA and the Everyone’s Business Campaign has been secured! See below:

A grant of £750,000 has been secured from Comic Relief.  This is intended to:

The grant will continue to be hosted by Action on Postpartum Psychosis (APP) on behalf of the MMHA

MMHA says:

a huge thank you for all your on-going support – the outcomes of the evaluation and further funding is a reflection of how well the alliance has worked collectively.

First World Maternal Mental Health Day – 4 May 2016

World MMH day logoThe first World Maternal Mental Health awareness day is 4 May 2016.

What is it? Organisations from around the world — including the UK, US, Canada, Turkey, Australia, Argentina, Malta, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, Germany, Nigeria, will be raising awareness about maternal mental health through a collective social media push and in-country events on or around the 4 May.

What can I do? The Maternal Mental Health Alliance encourages ALL to use this day to communicate the message that maternal mental health matters. Everone is encouraged to do whatever they can, however major or minor.

Ideas: You may want to organise your own mini event or, if you already have an event planned for that day, you could use it to highlight World MMH Day.

Some organisations are encouraging mums to do a buggy walk, another peer support group will be making a cake with World MMH Day written on it, taking a photo and promoting it on social media. Maybe someone from your organisation could write a blog post and use the World MMH Day hashtag, twibbon and logo to get some media interest around your event or idea.

PLease keep MMHA updated on what you are planning – send photos on the day or tweet them @MMHAlliance

This can all be used to gain more support for World MMH Day next year and perhaps for some funding.

Resources and materials available are:

  1. Join the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag: #maternalMHmatters
  2. Website/landing page: postpartum.net – please promote this landing page through your networks and on your websites.
  3. Adopt the Twibbon on World MMH day on Facebook or Twitter: com/Support/world-mmh-day
  4. World MMH logo
  5. World MMH poster