May is Maternal Mental Health Month. This month promotes the importance of mental health support for all mothers and particularly raises awareness of mental health problems experienced before, during and after pregnancy (the perinatal period). Touchstone provides a range of specialist mental health support for people in the perinatal period. This month, we want to spotlight the forms of support we offer.

Perinatal Support at Leeds Mental Wellbeing Service

Touchstone is a partner in Leeds Mental Wellbeing Service (LMWS), which provides specialist support for people in the perinatal period.

LMWS prioritises parents (including dads, same sex couples and main carers) on our waiting list, who are either expecting a child or have a child up to one year old. This means they are likely to have reduced wait times for treatment.

Treatment and support from LMWS for people in the perinatal period could include:

  • Talking therapies (via phone, video call or face-to-face appointment);
  • An online course via Silvercloud tailored to people in the perinatal period. This course can be accessed 24/7 and you do not need appointments to attend;
  • Online CBT-based video courses for common mental health conditions, including sessions on Postnatal Depression, Managing Stress in Parenthood and more. These courses can be accessed straight away without a referral: https://leeds.omnitherapy.org/courses/online.

To access support, you can refer yourself to LMWS online or speak to your GP or preferred healthcare worker. Following your assessment, you will be referred to the best suited LMWS therapy and/or to one or several services. You can also access the online CBT based video courses (see above) without referral.

For more information about how you can get support from LMWS during the perinatal period, please visit their website: https://leedsmentalwellbeingservice.co.uk/what-we-offer/talking-therapies/perinatal-support/.

Perinatal Support at Bradford’s Safe Space

Currently, we also provide specialist perinatal support through the Safe Spaces crisis service in Bradford, Craven and Airedale in partnership with the Cellar Trust and Bradford District and Craven Mind.

The Safe Space service provides same-day crisis support for anyone over the age of 7. As a partner in the service, Touchstone co-ordinates Perinatal support, with a Perinatal Lead, Jayne, in place to support mums and parents at the Bradford Hub’s Perinatal Space. Here, mums and parents can access face-to-face support with their mental health in a confidential and soothing space, where they can bring their babies with them. This on-the-day support in a tailored safe space can be so meaningful and important in the perinatal period, which can be a particularly difficult and isolating time for new parents.

Alongside this same-day support, Touchstone has been committed to partnership working and sharing our specialist knowledge and skills around perinatal mental health with other organisations. As part of her work, Jayne provides Perinatal Mental Health Training to upskill the Safe Spaces staff.  Another key part of Jayne’s role is to make the Safe Spaces service more accessible and inclusive through outreach in diverse communities to better understand and respond to their needs.

The Perinatal role at the Safe Spaces Hub ends on June 30th. However, Jayne’s hard work will leave a lasting legacy across the service, equipping staff in the longer-term to support mums and parents struggling with their mental health during the period before, during and after pregnancy.

Going forwards, Jayne will continue to provide training on Perinatal Mental Health to continue educating practitioners in how best to support mums and parents struggling with their mental health. We would love to talk more with organisations who would benefit from this training about how we can tailor it to meet your needs.

If you are interested in this training, please get in touch with Sharon Brown, Director of Strategic & Business Partnerships on Sharonb@touchstonesupport.org.uk