New research to help new mums’ mental health announced

New research into the reasons behind inequalities in treatment of people who experience mental ill health during pregnancy and the first year of parenthood

Improving perinatal mental health services is a key priority for the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership (WY&H HCP), as set out in both Better Births – the national maternity review 2016 and the Long Term Plan for the NHS 2019. In line with this, the Partnership has announced that it is funding research into the reasons behind inequalities in treatment of people who experience mental ill health during pregnancy and the first year after the birth of a child – the perinatal period.

It is estimated that one in four mothers suffers from mental health problems during this period and it is estimated that 5-10% fathers also develop mental health difficulties during this time. Whilst maternal mortality has declined progressively over time, to a level of nine deaths per 100,000 maternities in the UK, 23% of these deaths are from mental health related causes, with one in seven dying through suicide (source: National Maternity Review – Better Births).

There are concerns that Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups and people living in deprived communities might be less likely to have their mental health illnesses identified, recorded or treated, and the new research aims to uncover what the reasons are behind this disparity and to identify examples of good practice to overcome these barriers across the whole of the West Yorkshire and Harrogate area. This work will help the Partnership to work with women and families to make recommendations for changes to services to make care more equal for all women.

Dr Sara Munro, CEO Lead for WY&H HCP Mental Health, Learning Disabilities and Autism; and CEO for Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust said:

“As part of the national commitment to specialist perinatal mental health services and through the work of our collaborative in West Yorkshire we now have full specialist community provision as well as dedicated inpatient services for those mums and babies who need them.  However, we know there is variation in who can and does access these services which increases health inequalities.  We have chosen to invest in research to understand this variation to help us improve the services we provide and ensure all mums who need this support can access it.

“The project has been funded by pooling perinatal mental health transformation monies across local clinical commissioning groups, which has enabled us to ensure we have a robust study to inform our future work across all our places.”

The research team is a collaboration between Born in Bradford, the University of York and the University of Huddersfield. Together this team brings expertise in perinatal mental health, applied health research, systems change, health inequalities and analysis of large data to lead an exciting piece of work that will help improve PMH services across the region.

Prof John Wright, Director of Research, Bradford Institute of Health Research said:

“Born in Bradford has completed a lot of work to understand the barriers that stop some women from having their mental health problems recognised or treated, but we don’t know if these barriers are the same in other areas. We are really pleased to be working in partnership with the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership to extend our research to see what the experiences of perinatal mental health are for women living in different areas of the region.”