Advancements in Perinatal Mental Health Team at Aneurin Bevan University Health Board
Perinatal Mental Health Team at Aneurin Bevan University Health Board has evolved since its inception in 2016, expanding into a comprehensive multi-disciplinary team. They have navigated challenges during the Covid-19 pandemic by adapting their methods of service delivery. The team introduced new roles like Occupational Therapist, Nursery Nurse, Peer Mentors, and Specialist Midwife to enhance support for pregnant women and new mothers. Their proactive approach led to innovative solutions such as virtual meetings, ensuring continued care amidst the pandemic.
- Perinatal Mental Health
- Maternal Wellness
- Team Development
- Covid-19 Challenges
- Multi-disciplinary Team
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The Perinatal Mental Health Team Aneurin Bevan University Health Board
The Team The Team was developed in 2016 and started off as a small team of 3 nurses, a psychologist and a psychiatrist. Since then it has grown into a multi-disciplinary team consisting of: Perinatal Team Leader 3 Community Psychiatric Nurses Psychiatrist and Registrar Clinical Psychologist and Assistant Psychologist Occupational Therapist Nursery Nurse 2 Admin Support Officers 2 Peer Mentors Specialist Midwife
Where we work Our Team covers the following area s in South East Wales: Blaenau Gwent Caerphilly Monmouthshire Newport Torfaen
Recent Challenges From the start of the Covid 19 Pandemic the team was faced with trying to still run the service whilst keeping staff and service users safe and maintaining social distancing. We quickly realised that some of our ways of working would need to be adapted or changed to meet the needs of the service, as well as still functioning on a daily basis. For example, initial assessments were previously completed face to face which would mean a 2-4 week wait, whereas during the pandemic the initial assessments were completed over the phone which cut the waiting time down to a minimum, and helped to refer women to the appropriate members of the team quicker. Further on from this, we saw the introduction of virtual meetings or appointments with our service users, which helped as a substitute for face to face contact. Service users were given a choice of a phone call or virtual call. Urgent visits were still being completed but staff were equipped with full PPE to keep our service users and staff safe.
Team Development The Covid 19 pandemic was actually an interesting time for the team in terms of the teams development as 4 new roles were introduced: Occupational Therapist Our OT can help pregnant ladies and new mums to create healthy routines, help develop skills for anxiety, help to make connections within the community and help to adapt the home environment to be mum and baby friendly. Nursery Nurse Our Nursery Nurse can help mums to create a routine, help mums to develop their bond through baby massage and play and help mums with confidence in motherhood. Peer Mentors Our Peer Mentors have their own experience of mental health during the perinatal period and were supported by the team themselves. They offer women support and help women through their recovery by sharing their own experiences and coping strategies or skills which helped them. They are often a shoulder to lean on and can bridge the gap between them and the professionals involved, as the women often see the Peer Mentors as equals. Specialist Midwife We recruited a new Specialist Midwife following the retirement of our former Midwife. Our Midwife supports pregnant ladies with drug and alcohol issues, supports women with serious mental health illness and Tokophobia, and is also a vital link between Mental Health Services and Midwifery.
Exciting New Projects Over the last few months our team have been developing new ways of helping and supporting our service users. Here are a few examples: Our OT and Nursery Nurse have worked collaboratively to develop a new virtual mums group called Stay in and Play in , where a handful of mums could meet virtually and could learn new skills, exchange ideas and problem solve from the comfort of their own homes. There is also song/rhyme singing with the babies as well as a weekly theme which the group can discuss and share ideas like soothing babies or self care for mums. The first 2 sessions were completed recently and were a success so these will hopefully continue. Our Psychology Team developed the Perinatal Toolkit for pregnant ladies and new mums, which details DBT skills and strategies to cope specifically during the Pandemic lockdown. This was an extremely helpful resource to our service users and helped them cope through an extremely anxious and worrying time, and continues to be a vital resource to them. Our Psychology Team have also developed virtual DBT groups with our service users to teach them DBT skills and strategies to help them through their struggles, as well as delivering 4 sessions of DBT skills training to other team members and other Perinatal Professionals from other services and health boards, using Microsoft Teams.
Our Specialist Midwife has been attending joint visits with other team members in order to help and support our more complex service users who have a variety of needs. Our Peer Mentors are in the process of developing a Wellbeing Group where service users can meet in a small group and receive peer support as well as share experiences with other mums and can play with their babies in a supportive environment. A few leaflets and information resources have been developed for service users about the OT service, the Peer Mentor service as well as information about mental health during parenthood. Our team is also continually adapting their ways of working to include virtual appointments with service users as well as virtual secure MDT meetings due to social distancing office rules.
