Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust’s (EPUT) Specialist Perinatal Mental Health Service has recently completed a five year expansion and transformation of its work with health, social care, and voluntary and community partners across Essex, Thurrock and Southend.
The EPUT team, who are made up of health and care professionals from numerous specialisms, work collaboratively with maternity hospitals, GPs, Parents 1st, GPs, and health and social care partners to provide joined-up treatment and support for families.
Together, they have been shortlisted in the HSJ Awards in the Place-based Partnership and Integrated Care category. The winner is due to be announced on 21 November.
EPUT’s Specialist Perinatal Mental Health Service is one of the largest specialist community perinatal mental health services in the country. It has worked collaboratively with health and care partners to provide care to more than 2,700 families this year.
The service is made up of professionals who specialise in perinatal adult and infant mental health, and provide compassionate support for mums, mums-to-be and their families.
The service is available to women and birthing parents who need specialist support during pregnancy and up to baby’s first birthday. However, it also supports some families for longer, depending on individual circumstances.
Some recent feedback from parents who have used the service include:
“I feel that I really benefited from the service and they are the best NHS mental health support I have come across.”
“The professionals who work on this team care so much and are just fantastic. I am still being looked after them and so glad to be.”
“This is the first time I have seen positive change to my mental health, the service helped me a lot.”
“Thank you to my practitioner and the whole perinatal team. I have been able to enjoy my time with my baby in a way I wouldn’t have without your support.”
The service has recently commissioned Parents 1st to offer peer support to families across Essex, and hopes to soon provide further support for fathers and partners of birthing parents currently accessing support with EPUT’s Specialist Perinatal Mental Health Service.
Since Parents 1st and EPUT partnered in April 2023, 218 parents have received peer support via the Essex Peer to Parent Network.
Celia Suppiah, Chief Executive Officer of Parents 1st, said: “The new partnership we have developed over the past year with EPUT has been exciting and liberating.
“We will build on the learning, insights, and good practice during Year 2.
“The evidence is clear that when peer supporters are carefully recruited, well-trained and supervised, their unique, informal and non-clinical support complements EPUT’s skilled perinatal mental health teams offers something very valuable to parents living in Essex.”
EPUT has also recently launched the By Your Side service, in collaboration with maternity services in Essex.
By Your Side is the first specialist psychological and therapeutic service for perinatal loss in Essex and supports people who have experienced a miscarriage, still birth, neonatal death or planned termination.
Caroline Bogle, Associate Director for Community Perinatal Mental Health Services at EPUT, said: “Working together with key partners across Essex is what makes our perinatal care most effective through collaboration with maternity and health visiting services, Parents 1st, Talking Therapies, social care and other EPUT mental health services, plus many others.
“The people we care for are going through life-changing events in their journey into parenthood, which can cause them and their families to experience a whole range of difficult emotions.
“We provide compassionate and sensitive care tailored to support their emotional wellbeing as they navigate their own feelings and relationship with their baby whilst becoming a new parent.
“We have listened to our patients and partners and over the last five years we have developed our service in line with best practice to ensure it meets the needs of the people we care for.
“We are immensely grateful to our team and our system partners for raising awareness of perinatal mental health, and for working together to offer high quality specialist care and collaborative pathways to ensure that the right care is available for parents across the county.”
How to get help
If you are pregnant and are experiencing, or are likely to experience, mental health difficulties where you might benefit from specialist support, the Specialist Perinatal Mental Health Service can provide expert advice.
The team are committed to listening to the needs of babies, parents and their families to ensure they receive the most appropriate support and care.
You can speak to any health or social care professional supporting you to consider if a referral is needed. The service is unable to accept self-referrals.
Visit our services page for more information