Occupational Therapy News OTnews May 2020 | Page 56

FEATURE MENTAL HEALTH
The rise – and rise – of
perinatal services
The past five years has seen rapid growth in the numbers of perinatal
occupational therapists, and RCOT has launched new training to support them
A
56 OTnews May 2020
mong the many growth sectors for
occupational therapists, no field has
seen as fast a rise as perinatal care has
in the last five years.
‘About three years ago there was an informal
network of about 20 occupational therapists working
in the perinatal field,’ says Dr Sally Payne, RCOT
professional adviser for children, young people and
families. ‘By the time we had workshops this winter,
we had 80 participants. It really has been a substantial
increase.’
Perinatal occupational therapists work with
expectant mothers experiencing mental health
problems, all the way through birth and on to a child’s
first birthday. That includes women with both existing
mental health problems, and women whose illnesses
develop in the perinatal period.
And their numbers are growing. In England, that of suicide during the perinatal period, the emerging
services clearly face a huge level of need.
There is certainly an appetite for the roles – but
some clarity is needed on what they bring to the table.
’When I meet with leaders from other key
professions, they don’t know what occupational therapy
has to offer,’ says Sally. ‘They say to me, the mothers
are telling us this is what they need help with – to get
out the house, to do things – and they didn’t know it
was occupational therapists who could do that.’
growth has been driven by government aims for
improved access to support both in the community and
through specialist inpatient mother and baby units. families; in acute care, you don’t always get the chance
to do that. I wanted to explore this new role, and have
a chance to work with families to provide the holistic
It still remains a niche field, with fewer than 100
working in the field in England, and just a couple in
Wales and Scotland and none known to be working
in Northern Ireland. And when you consider that an
estimated that one in four women will be affected by
mental health problems and face an increased risk practice we always try and strive for but that isn’t
always possible.’
However, as for many new people to the field, the
role shift has not always been straightforward; Amanda
has had to work to prevent her role being seen as an
activity co-ordinator in the team.
Support in the community
One of those new to the field is Amanda Peach, an
occupational therapist at Herefordshire’s mental health
and learning disability services, who took on a part-time
secondment to perinatal care from her job in acute
adult mental health last August.
Says Amanda: ’I loved the idea of working with