Informing Perinatal Mental Health Services​
INDIVIDUAL
Beliefs About Health Services
​Certain beliefs about health services can impact whether services are implemented and delivered successfully, and whether women seek help and access services. These beliefs include:​
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Services only offer medication
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Services are stretched​
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Services are too complicated
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No trust in health services
Services only offer medication
Believing health services will only offer medication for perinatal mental illness may act as a barrier to perinatal mental health care​.​
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"I knew she would just write me a prescription and send me away…that wasn’t what I wanted​.​"
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Evidence level: Low​
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​Parts of the care pathway affected: Deciding to consult, Assessment, Deciding to disclose, Access to treatment, Provision of optimal treatment.​​
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Key literature: ​
Services Are Too Complicated
Believing health services are too complicated may act as a barrier to perinatal mental health care​
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"Consistently identified barriers to care for immigrant women were: ‘not understanding the health-care system’”
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​Evidence level: Low​
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​Parts of the care pathway affected: Deciding to consult, Access to treatment​.
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​​Key literature: ​
Services Are Stretched
Believing perinatal mental health services are too stretched and therefore will be unable to help, may act as a barrier to perinatal mental health care.​​
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"I think it was just that they were really busy and just didn’t really have enough time for everybody with their kids".​
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​Evidence level: Low​
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​Parts of the care pathway affected: Deciding to consult, Deciding to disclose​.
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​Key literature: ​
No trust in health services
Having little trust in health services may act as a barrier to perinatal mental health care​
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"The personal barriers described were mistrust, [and] fear of mental health service systems".
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​Evidence level: Low​
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​Parts of the care pathway affected: Access to treatment​
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​Key literature: ​