Celebrating 10 years of the Perinatal Community Mental Health Team
By Wendy Summerton, Clinical Manager of the Perinatal Community Mental Health Team at Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (LPFT)
In February 2015, the Perinatal Community Mental Health Team was born. Over the last 10 years, the Perinatal Community Mental Health team have undergone a vast transformation. We originally started out with 6 people within the team and now we have more than 51 people, consisting of Occupational Therapists, Consultant Psychiatrists and so many more.
We have gone from strength to strength by having several Peer Support Workers embedded in our team that can help support people who access our service and help them on their journey to recovery.
Perinatal Peer Support Workers are individuals who have lived experience of accessing a service and use this experience and insight to support service development and service improvement projects.
Around one in 10 women will experience a mental health problem during pregnancy or in the year after giving birth. It can and does affect anyone.
The aim of our team is to identify, assess and treat serious mental illness in the perinatal period by working together with you, your families and health professionals.
Our Peer Support Workers run several support groups across the County. Originally, these support groups met at different locations around Lincoln, but this has now been expanded across the County to areas such as Bourne, Mablethorpe and Sutterton.
In February 2023, we launched the Trauma and Loss Care Service as we realised there was a gap in the support we provided. Through extensive consultation and engagement, the service was created. The sole purpose of the service is to support people who may be struggling with trauma and distress following their pregnancy, birth, or perinatal experience.
We understand that the loss of a baby is often life-changing and can be traumatic. The service is for individuals who are experiencing difficulties such as (but not limited to) moderate to severe anxiety and/or low mood, struggles with day-to-day coping or complicated grief following; a miscarriage at any stage, ectopic pregnancy, stillbirth and more.
I look forward to the next 10 years of the Perinatal Mental Health Team and seeing how much we can achieve together.
For more information on Perinatal Mental Health, visit: www.lpft.nhs.uk/our-services/adults/perinatal-mental-health
For more information on the Perinatal Trauma and Loss Service, visit: www.lpft.nhs.uk/our-services/adults/perinatal-trauma-and-loss-care-service