In the United Kingdom (UK), an organization called Post Natal Illness ORG UK is fighting for the same kind of support we want here in the U.S. for women with perinatal mood disorders, which are called postnatal illness (PNI) or postnatal depression (PND) across the pond.
The National Health Service (NHS) in the UK, which includes England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, is nationalized and thus has basic standards of care available to all. PNI ORG UK is campaigning for the NHS to establish a "perinatal pathway of care" that would ensure all mothers with PNI get the care they need from all related health agencies from day one.
One step toward getting that done has already happened. The UK’s National Institute for Health & Clinical Excellence (NICE) is an independent organization responsible for "providing national guidance on the promotion of good health and the prevention and treatment of ill health". They make recommendations that the NHS is expected to accept and implement. NICE has now created guidelines for antenatal and postnatal mental health which state that the NHS in all areas of the UK should have a multidisciplinary approach to providing services to women with PNI. (You can read the antenatal and postnatal mental health guidelines here.)
The issue at this point is that PNI ORG UK doesn’t think NHS is following through on NICE’s recommendations, which include requiring all people in contact with women in the antenatal and postnatal periods (including midwives, obstetricians, health visitors and primary care practitioners) to take a history of any mental illness in the patient or family and to ask questions to identify possible depression.
PNI ORG UK founder Veritee Reed Hall, who is also one of the PSI coordinators for the UK, says her organization is working to see that these recommendations are truly implemented across the UK. To that end, one of her group’s members has started an online petition to the Prime Minister of Great Britian, which you can find here: . They urge anyone reading Postpartum Progress who is a UK citizen to join in signing the petition.
P.S. Here are other organizations in the UK that provides support to women with PNI: The Association for Post-Natal Illness and Mother’s Voice.
