A specialist NHS mental health service in Essex is now offering support to more women and birthing parents who have experienced the loss of a baby during pregnancy or shortly after birth.
Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (EPUT) has extended the time people can access its ‘EPUT By Your Side’ service, from one year after a loss, to two years.
The service supports women and birthing parents who are struggling with their mental health after experiences such as miscarriage, repeated miscarriage, stillbirth, termination, or the death of a new born baby up to 28 days postnatal.
The change means more people will be able to get specialist therapeutic care, grief therapy and emotional support, recognising that grief and mental health difficulties can continue or appear long after the loss.
The service brings together mental health specialists, maternal mental health midwives, and other support organisations across Essex to provide joined-up care.
During Mental Health Awareness Week (11-17 May), Stephanie Lambert, Principal Practitioner Psychologist and Clinical Lead for EPUT By Your Side, said:
“We know that the emotional impact of perinatal loss does not follow a fixed timeline. For many, the intensity of grief and associated mental health difficulties can persist or even emerge well beyond the first year. By extending our referral window to two years, we are acknowledging this reality and ensuring more people can access compassionate, specialist support when they are ready to seek help. Our aim is to be alongside individuals during one of the most difficult experiences they may face, offering understanding, therapeutic care, and hope.”
Referrals can be made by healthcare professionals including GPs, midwives, health visitors, social workers, and mental health staff.
Parents who are struggling with their mental health during or after pregnancy, but who have not experienced baby loss, can still access support through other specialist perinatal mental health services offered by EPUT. Urgent mental health support is also available through NHS 111 and relevant charities.
The expansion of EPUT By Your Side reflects the Trust’s focus on providing personalised, inclusive mental health support and improving access to trauma-informed care closer to home.
Delivered in partnership with maternity teams, mental health services and voluntary sector organisations across Essex, the service also demonstrates EPUT’s wider commitment to joined-up community care, prevention, and working collaboratively across the health and care system to improve outcomes for local people.
Information about EPUT
- EPUT has a vision to be the leading health and wellbeing service in the provision of mental health and community care: Who we are – Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust
- EPUT provides services to more than 100,000 patients at any one time and our staff are focused on providing high quality care in often complex situations.
- The organisation has invested in inpatient facilities and community services to make them safer and more therapeutic. We have extensively invested in technology to keep patients safer, enhanced training, and are continuously working with our staff, patients, their families and carers to use learning and best practice to enhance our quality of care.
- While there is more to do, the Trust has made significant progress through innovation:
- Our 111 mental health crisis phone line ensures people in need can access support 24 hours a day, 365 days a year
- People with lived experience have been employed in designated roles across the Trust, ensuring patient voice is heart of the organisation and all that we do.
- A number of new initiatives have been launched, helping people access the support they need when they need it most. These include a mental health urgent care department, By Your Side maternal mental health service, Rough Sleeper team, mental health crisis ambulance cars, virtual wards and neuromodulation service.
- EPUT was formed on 1 April 2017 and provides community health, mental health and learning disability services across Essex, Luton and Bedfordshire and Suffolk. We employ more than 7,200 staff working across more than 200 sites.
- To read more about our priorities and commitments to deliver the highest quality and safest care possible, visit https://eput.nhs.uk/about-us/2023-2028-strategic-plan/