Informing Perinatal Mental Health Services
INDIVIDUAL
Practical Difficulties
Certain practical difficulties act as barriers to women seeking help and accessing perinatal mental health care, as well as the successful implementation and delivery of perinatal mental health care. These include:
-
Lack of childcare
-
Travel to services
-
Timing and flexibility of services
Lack of childcare
Lack of childcare may act as a barrier to perinatal mental health care.
"They cannot take their child with them to their session. . .(and) a lot of times they cannot afford day care".
Evidence level: Low
Parts of the care pathway affected: Access to treatment.
Key literature:
Location and travel costs
The location of services, and the costs of travelling to services may act as a barrier to perinatal mental health care.
"Yes, there was the issue of travelling. I cannot drive and my husband was admitted to the hospital".
Evidence level: Low
Parts of the care pathway affected: Access to treatment.
Key literature:
Inflexible timing
Inflexible timing of appointments may act as a barrier to perinatal mental health care.
"Mothers …expressed concerns about the logistics of attending a group meeting due to already overburdened days…Some depressed mothers refused to seek treatment due to perceived insufficient time (42) and the inconvenience of attending appointments (21)".
Evidence level: Low
Parts of the care pathway affected: Access to treatment.
Key literature:
Recommendations
More research is needed into practical barriers to accessing perinatal mental health care using rigorous methodology, before recommendations for policy and practice can be made.