Summary
- This service supports expectant women and new mothers in the region.
- It works closely with local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Workers to ensure cultural safety for the women.
- It's for women who experience perinatal anxiety or suffer from perinatal depression.
A new mental health service to support expectant women and new mothers throughout Cape York, the Northern Peninsula Area and Torres Strait has been launched by Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Service.
The perinatal and infant mental health service began last month and is already being embraced by local women and their families.
The service includes two experienced perinatal and infant mental health clinicians who will travel throughout the region and a psychiatrist.
It was launched as part of the State Government’s $1.64 billion Better Care Together program which was a five-year plan announced last year to support improved mental health services across the state.
Torres and Cape HHS received almost $2.7 million in funding over five years for the new service and the psychiatrist position.
TCHHS Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Clinician Sarah Davies-Roe said the new service was vital in the region.
“During pregnancy and after having a baby is a time of significant changes for women, not only for their bodies, but getting used to becoming mothers,” she said.
“There are a range of risk factors that contribute to vulnerability and research has shown that those living in rural and remote areas, or Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women do have an increased vulnerability.
“There is no health without positive mental health.”
TCHHS Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Clinician Louise Gawler said one in five women experience perinatal anxiety and one in seven suffer from perinatal depression.
“That’s why it is imperative that we have a Perinatal and Infant Mental Health service in Torres and Cape to meet the needs of all women and their infants through the perinatal period and beyond,” she said.
“The significance of this goes beyond the here and now it supports families and their infants to reach their immediate and long-term outcomes in life.
“We also know through research that Aboriginal and Torres strait Islander peoples have a higher rate of mental illness to the general population and are the least likely to engage in mental health services.”
Psychiatrist Dr Alexandra Simpson will initially work one day per week to support the two clinicians who will be travelling throughout the region.
TCHHS Director Mental Health, Alcohol and Other Drugs Dawn Miller said she was the first psychiatrist to work for the Health Service and hoped her position would expand as the service does.
“It is fantastic our clinicians will be able to travel out to sites to hold appointments with women, then have the additional support of a highly experienced psychiatrist who will consult on cases and hold appointments with some of our patients,” she said.
She said women can access the service directly, or the team are working closely with the Midwifery Group Practices, Maternal and Child Health nurses and local Mental Health teams who can support women to be referred into the service.
TCHHS Acting Executive Director Nursing and Midwifery Services Sarah Worth said the service would also work closely with local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Workers to ensure cultural safety for the women involved.
“This is such an essential service and we understand the vulnerability of the women in our region and how important it is to offer it as close to home as possible,” she said.
“We have recruited a highly skilled team who are extremely experienced in the area of perinatal mental health and I believe this service is going to make a significant difference for women and their families in our communities.”
The service launch comes ahead of Infant Mental Health Awareness Week which runs from 10- 16 June.