ABSTRACT

Background/Objective

Perinatal mental health services are a current NHS priority and services are being increased for women. There is limited research on mothers’ perspectives of these services and most research focuses on mother and baby units (MBUs). This study explored women’s views of their experiences of generic wards, MBUs and crisis resolution teams.

Methods

A qualitative thematic analysis was conducted on written feedback on a service-user-designed questionnaire. One hundred and thirty-nine women recruited across 42 mental health trusts made comments.

Results

Two key themes were identified: support networks and staff authority. Support networks included subthemes relating to families, peers and staff. The theme of staff authority incorporated subthemes about communication, confidence in staff and service-user autonomy. All themes contributed to whether mothers felt safe in these services. Mothers reported the benefits of positive, non-coercive relationships with family and staff for their recovery. The findings highlight that the challenges women face in perinatal settings reflect the literature on general psychiatric services, particularly around coercion.

Conclusions

Specific implications for mothers accessing perinatal mental health services: 1) integrated mental health care and support with babies; 2) support with separation from babies for mothers in acute wards; 3) improvement of women’s relationships with social services across all services.

中文翻译：

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英格兰和威尔士母亲接受急性围产期心理健康服务的经验：定性分析

摘要

背景/目标

围产期心理健康服务是 NHS 当前的优先事项，并且正在增加针对女性的服务。关于母亲对这些服务的看法的研究有限，大多数研究集中在母婴单元 (MBU)。本研究探讨了女性对普通病房、MBUs 和危机解决团队经历的看法。

方法

对服务用户设计的问卷的书面反馈进行了定性主题分析。在 42 个心理健康信托基金中招募的 139 名女性发表了评论。

结果

确定了两个关键主题：支持网络和工作人员权力。支持网络包括与家庭、同伴和员工有关的子主题。员工权力的主题包含有关沟通、员工信心和服务用户自主权的子主题。所有主题都有助于确定母亲在这些服务中是否感到安全。母亲们报告了与家人和员工建立积极、非强制性的关系对她们康复的好处。研究结果强调，女性在围产期面临的挑战反映了有关一般精神科服务的文献，特别是在强迫方面。

结论

对获得围产期心理健康服务的母亲的具体影响： 1) 综合心理健康护理和婴儿支持；2) 为重症病房的母亲提供与婴儿分离的支持；3) 在所有服务中改善妇女与社会服务的关系。