Service Development Guidelines: For Facilities Providing Maternal Mental Health Care

Since 2002, the Perinatal Mental Health Project (PMHP) has been operating an integrated mental health service in a primary level maternity facility. They offer mental health screening, counselling and psychiatry services to pregnant and postnatal women onsite at the facility where they receive their antenatal care.

PMHP has been asked by other facilities to describe how their service runs. We have drawn from our experience and tried to develop some guidelines about how an integrated mental health service could be adapted for other facilities. Each management team would need to assess their own needs and adapt these guidelines to ensure that the maternal mental health service works well within the specific environment.