Assessing women's perinatal psychological health: Exploring the experiences of health visitors

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to explore health visitors' (HVs) experiences of the assessment of women with psychological distress and mental health problems across the perinatal period in clinical practice. Background: In international contexts, there is now a firm policy remit for the assessment of psychological and mental health disorder across the perinatal period. Women are in regular contact with health professionals across this time and consultations intuitively create an ideal and appropriate context in which to assess women's psychological health. National reports and academic literature highlight that to prevent the escalation of perinatal mental illness, significant change is needed to support health professionals in detecting, discussing and dealing with mental illnesses. Methods: In a qualitative aspect of a larger mixed-method study, data were collected from two Focus Group Discussions with HVs pre and post a training session related to assessing and managing perinatal mental health problems in practice. For the purposes of this paper, the data were explicitly examined for references to recognition and assessment. Results: Four themes emerged from the data: recognising the problem; questioning and identification; so what do I do now; the importance of support to promote effective identification and assessment. Conclusion: Findings elucidate the complexities that practitioners face in assessing women's psychological health in real world settings. HVs' experiences highlight that the implementation of measures into practice needs to be workable and accompanied by contemporary and appropriately contextualised knowledge, adequate service provision and clear referral pathways to ensure effective assessment of women's psychological health. © 2013 Society for Reproductive and Infant Psychology.