About
Perinatal Mental Health Cymru
- Perinatal
Mental Health Cymru is a Charity foundered in 2016 by Charlotte
Harding.
- We are a
lived experienced organisation with a board of four trustees who
have a knowledge or a lived experience of mental
illness.
- We are currently based in the Llandaff North hub in
Cardiff.
- We take a
family approach to perinatal mental health related illness and
currently run courses and activities for families at risk and/or
those affected.
- We are currently unfunded and all involved work on a voluntary
basis.
Background
- PMH Cymru
founder has a long term mental illness. She was unfortunate to
suffer with postpartum psychosis after the birth of her first child
and postnatal anxiety after the birth of her second.
- During an
episode of postpartum psychosis, Charlotte needed hospital
treatment but could not receive this as the specialised mother and
baby unit in Wales had been closed.
- Charlotte
had a perinatal mental health psychiatrist and community mental
health nurse at the time and it was agreed that home treatment
would be better than a stay in an acute psychiatric ward without
her baby.
- Home
treatment was long and there was very little support other than her
CPN. It took 1.5 years to recover.
- Whilst
pregnant with her second child in 2014, Charlotte had specialised
care from the start of the pregnancy however this was short lived
as funding cuts had been made in Wales to perinatal mental
healthcare so at 20 weeks all support was stopped.
- Charlotte
set up PMH Cymru as a result of the funding cuts made in Wales, to
raise awareness that there is no mother and baby unit and that
families are not being heard, children are being removed from homes
due to services not having the understanding of perinatal mental
health related illnesses.
What PMH
Cymru offers
We offer a
wide range of services delivered in the community by volunteers
with a lived experience.
- We offer
peer based support to families In South Wales with or at risk of
developing perinatal mental health issues.
- We offer an
'Enjoy your baby' 5 week course based on Cognitive behavioural
therapy (CBT). All volunteers have been trained to deliver this
course, we received support and free training from Mind Cymru. We
have a licence to deliver this course under our Charity
name.
- We offer a 4
week introduction to mindfulness which is delivered by a qualified
mindfulness practitioner. The course is usually taken after the
'Enjoy your baby' to give parents extra tools to help in their
recovery.
- We offer one
to one based peer support to parents not wanting to/ or to anxious
to talk in our peer group settings. We stress that the one to one
support is not 'professional support' and no advice will be given
on medication.
- We offer
support for fathers and partners.
Referral
criteria
We except
self referrals and referrals from health professionals.
Referral
forms can be downloaded from our website or requested by email.
Although referrals can be made by the parent themselves our usual
referral criteria is as follows
- Women who
are identified during pregnancy who have severe mental illness
which may include bipolar disorder, psychosis, depression,
schizophrenia
- Women with
alcohol/substance misuse problems
- Those
identified during pregnancy who are at risk of a serious mental
illness ( family history of bipolar disorder or severe child birth
related mental illness i.e. postpartum psychosis
- Women with a
severe form of depression, anxiety, post traumatic stress disorder,
eating disorders, obsessional compulsive disorder, personality
disorder, pregnancy related mental health problems
Who we work
with
At present
we are developing a relationship with the Cardiff perinatal mental
health team. They currently receive high numbers of referrals for
women with low to moderate mood and anxiety who could perhaps get
support in the community from PMH Cymru. We hope our relationship
will grow and we are looking to work closely with them.
We also have
links with
- Primary
mental health services. They will be referring service users to us
shortly. Families will be referred to the 'Enjoy your baby'
course.
- Flying start
have expressed an interest and wish to refer parents to our
services. This is something we can see happening very
soon.
- Health
visitors. Local health visitors (Llandaff North area) put
information about our services in every 'New Mum' pack. We hope
that health visitors from other areas of Cardiff will do the same
soon.
Committees
and boards we are part of
- The All
Wales Perinatal Mental Health Steering group. A group that sees the
management of the 1.5 million perinatal mental health
fund.
- The Tier 4
specialised mental health group. A subgroup of the All Wales
Perinatal Mental Health Steering group which sees us working with
Welsh Health Specialised Services Committee (WHSSC) and those with
a lived experience. The group was formed to develop a model mother
and baby unit for Wales.