Nurses play ‘crucial’ role in reducing stigma around perinatal mental health

Mental health nurses are central to reducing stigma around perinatal mental health, a leading nurse has said.

Public Health England national lead nurse for quality, mental health, learning disability and dementia Pauline Watts said the true scale of mental health issues among new or expectant mothers may be higher than previously thought because women are afraid to ask for help.

'Mental health nurses are crucial to providing the right support at the right time in a variety of settings,’ she told nurses at the Future Mental Health Nursing conference in Huddersfield last week.

‘If we get it right, we are changing things for the future and breaking this cycle of disadvantage from conception to first year of life.’

Funding boost

A total of £365 million has been allocated by NHS England for specialist perinatal mental health services over the next five years, with the aim of helping an extra 30,000 new or expectant mothers.

The first tranche of funding, announced by the government in August, is for community-based services that support women with mental illness in pregnancy or the postnatal period.

Fewer than 15% of areas in England provide services to levels recommended in national guidelines, and more than 40% provide no service at all.