Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust (LPT) has secured £460,000 from NHS England to double the size of its perinatal mental health team. The new funding is from the second wave of a £365 million national package of additional funding from NHS England to improve access to mental health care.
Every year the team provides vital support in the community for more than 400 women who experience mental illness during pregnancy and in the months following birth. The team provides support at or close to home for mothers with moderate to serious mental health needs. It also offers support for families and training for midwives and health visitors to help them identify women who need psychiatric care.
In 2014 the service was enhanced with financial support from CCG commissioners and the team almost tripled in size, with the number of specialist mental health nurses growing from two to seven. The new funding will enable the Trust to enhance the service even further, to meet national staffing standards fully.
The additional funding will be used to double the size of the current team, from 9.5 to 19.75 full-time roles. As well as increasing nursery nursing, community mental health nursing and medical staffing, the service will introduce occupational therapists and psychologists as part of the team and expand its peer supporter and recovery worker roles. This will support the development of new peer support networks and recovery programmes both for women and for their families.
Dr Fabida Noushad, clinical director for adult mental health and learning disability services at LPT, said: “The new funding will enable us to strengthen and build the specialist care available through our expanded team, allowing more women and their families access to support that will allow them to stay well in the community, in familiar surroundings and with their loved ones. “We are also committed to improving the service further, by expanding access for all communities and through a co-production approach that will involve families with a lived experience of perinatal mental illness to help us shape care into the future.”
And Donna Stafford, team lead for the service: “We recognise the importance of high standards of care and effective treatment, enabling families to have care delivered within their local community at such a critical time. “We are thrilled at the opportunity to expand our team and offer specialist perinatal care in the community to women and their families .Our aim has always been to ensure that women can access perinatal services, and with the addition of other health professionals we are confident that this service will meet the needs of our community within Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.”
Chris West, director of nursing and quality at Leicester City Clinical Commissioning Group, said: “We commission perinatal maternity services across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland and maternal mental health is one of our key priorities. We are extremely pleased that NHS England funding has been made available, so that the service can develop and bring in specialist support for women and their babies at this crucial point in their lives. This development will also support the implementation of our maternity transformational plan. ”