Pregnancy is a special period of time for most families, but unfortunately not for all. It is common for some women to experience mental ill health during pregnancy, or after the baby is born.
Perinatal mental health problems occur during pregnancy or in the first year following the birth of a child, and are likely to affect up to 20% of women.
They include both conditions that are new and pre-existing that may relapse or recur in pregnancy or in the post-partum year. If left untreated, it can have significant and long lasting effects on the woman and her family.
Historically, Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (LPFT) had just one specialist mother and baby nurse who offered a service to women living within the city of Lincoln. Following on from the NHS national objective of increasing access to specialist perinatal mental health support, a new team was funded and developed in February 2015. This consisted of a consultant psychiatrist, team manager, community mental health nurses, a social worker, and admin support.
We now cover the entire county and receive referrals from health professionals – mainly GPs, midwives and health visitors. Our aim is to treat women in the community, on occasion there can be a need for mothers to be cared for in hospital.
If they need to be cared for in hospital, they are admitted to mother and baby units, specialist psychiatric hospitals for women and their babies, to ensure that the bond and attachment between mother and baby is promoted and protected. Women receive the appropriate psychiatric help but also have support from staff to care for their babies day and night.
Recently, LPFT has been successful in gaining additional funds from NHS England and Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) to expand and develop the team further. This will increase staff numbers, skill mix and enable us to see more women in a more timely fashion, within a range of settings, by a range of specialisms.
The Lincolnshire Maternity Transformation Programme’s ‘Better Births’ project has developed ‘maternity hubs’ within existing Surestart Centres to collaborate existing community services into one place for women, making it easier and more efficient for accessing multiple resources.
The perinatal team will hold sessions at the hubs to provide support for women alongside their antenatal appointments. We also plan to start community groups with our newly appointed occupational therapist, nursery nurses and peer support workers; something that women who have accessed our service have identified would have helped their treatment and recovery.
I have worked in the perinatal team since it was formed in 2015, and I still absolutely love my job. It’s an honour to support women and their families during a time that can be worrying and distressing, but should be one of the most important and magical times of their lives. It’s very rewarding to help them to make their experiences more positive.
We regularly receive positive feedback from the women that we support saying that they felt reassured, safe and listened to.
For more information about perinatal services in Lincolnshire, please contact Jodie Lindley on 01522 421751.
Jodie Lindley is the Clinical Manager for the Perinatal Mental Health Team at Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (LPFT).
Spotted an error? Please notify us by selecting that text and pressing Ctrl+Enter.
Jodie Lindley is Clinical Manager for the Perinatal Mental Health Team at Lincolnshire Partnership Foundation Trust.
The Lincolnite welcomes your views. All comments are reactively-moderated and must obey the house rules. Please stay on topic and be respectful of other readers.
The Lincolnite welcomes your views. All comments are reactively-moderated and must obey the house rules. Please stay on topic and be respectful of other readers.
Police investigating the suspected stabbing of a man in Grantham have made three further arrests.
A 31-year-old woman, a 40-year-old woman and a 27-year-old man have been remanded into police custody on June 16 in connection with the serious assault on Thames Road on June 15.
As reported at the time, the victim, in his 30s, was found at a property on Thames Road at around 2.30am with a serious injury, consistent with a knife wound.
He was taken to hospital for treatment. His injuries were not described as life-threatening.
A fourth person was also arrested on June 15, but has been released on police bail.
Since the attack, armed officers, investigators, search teams and response officers have been carrying out searches for their suspect in the area, particularly the Bridge End Road end of the town.
It is not yet clear if a weapon has been located.
Lincolnshire Police said in a statement: “We would like to reassure the public that we are not looking for anyone else in connection to this incident. Enquiries are ongoing.
“We would like to thank the public for their assistance. If anyone has any further information, please contact us via 101 quoting incident 41 of June 15.”
A Lincolnshire coroner has warned people about the danger of mixing drugs following the sudden death of a 33-year-old man.
David Buck died at his home in Skegness from a massive pulmonary embolism.
An inquest into his death, held in Lincoln on Wednesday, heard that a contributory factor might have been a mixture of illicit and prescription drugs.
Speaking after the hearing, assistant coroner Marianne Johnson said: “I don’t think a lot of youngsters realise that mixing certain drugs – albeit only at therapeutic level – can cause what’s called toxicity.
“They perhaps need to understand that, singularly, therapeutic level is fine but mixing it with other therapeutic-level drugs is likely to cause a toxic effect that can then cause death.”
Mrs Johnson gave an example of paracetamol and cocaine.
The inquest was told that Mr Buck lived with his parents in Clarke Way.
The night before his death on November 28, 2020, he went out to a friend’s house to collect a phone charger.
His father, also named David, waited up until he came home at 2am.
Giving evidence, Mr Buck Snr said his son was unsteady on his feet and “clearly under the influence of something”. He sat with him before going to bed at 5.30am. When he checked on his son at 9am, he found him unresponsive and called 999.
East Midlands Ambulance Service gave CPR but was unable to revive Mr Buck Jnr. His father said in the inquest that the family was grateful to the paramedics for their attention.
The inquest was told that other contributory factors to the death were chronic drug-related heart disease and morbid obesity.
Evidence was heard that Mr Buck Jnr was “troubled”. He had lost a lot of weight and was self-conscious about the loose skin but was due to be referred by a mental health team for surgery which would have helped him.
Mrs Johnson concluded that his death was as a result of natural causes.
A 103-year-old man from Lincoln who was pushed over and then stabbed by an intruder at his front door has lived to tell the tale, and his family have been raising money for the charity that supported him.
He said he was there to check the lights, but John recognised it as a scam and said: “You’re not coming in here, mate.”
John sat with his daughter Jill and a member of staff at Victim Support. | Photo: Ellis Karran for The Lincolnite
The man then shoved John over before stabbing him in the arm with a blade, and running away in panic.
His wife Joan, 98, was upstairs at the time and was said to be horrified by what she saw when she heard John calling for help.
Joan Cox, 98, is the wife of John and she was part of the fundraising efforts. | Photo: Ellis Karran for The Lincolnite
John said the scene was a “bloodbath” and it took nine hours for hospital staff to stem the flow of blood coming from his arm.
Miraculously, he survived this ordeal despite his age. John will turn 104 in February, but the incident hasn’t fazed him.
“These things happen in life to make you stronger,” John told The Lincolnite. “I’m proud of how I defended myself because too many people think they can do this to elderly, vulnerable people.
“The thing I was most worried about was my watch, it was a birthday present from my wife and I thought I had lost it!
“I think the amount of blood scared him (the intruder) a bit, deep down I think he was more frightened than I was.”
John and his family were joined by Victim Support to hand over the £300 donation. | Photo: Ellis Karran for The Lincolnite
John is a fit and healthy man for his age, and his key to a long life has been keeping busy and active, which is why he still washes up, does gardening and even uses an exercise bike upstairs.
After the incident, John and his family were put in the capable hands of Victim Support, an independent charity for victims of traumatic crime.
Victim Support contacted John every week, and would call him regularly during coronavirus lockdown to make sure he was still doing okay.
John’s daughter Jill said: “We can’t thank them enough really, they’ve been absolutely brilliant for John and the whole family.
“We didn’t know about Victim Support before this happened, so we just wanted to raise awareness and help them however we could so that more families can be given the support we were.”
The Cox family have taken it upon themselves to help Victim Support as a token of their gratitude for the handling of John’s situation, and have spent the last year trying to raise money for the charity.
Due to the pandemic, they were unable to host any fundraising events or raffles, but managed to raise £300 for Victim Support, which will go towards making communities safer and installing new alarm systems on doors and windows of local residents.
Whatsapp
