Case Study 2 - Family Health and Lifestyle Service, Health Visiting; Coventry Parent and Infant Mental Health
The Health Visiting service improves the health and well-being of children and families in the crucial first years of life. It is available to all new parents, so it is a universal service, but it also offers a level of support and intervention that a parent may need at the time - proportionate to need. In addition, funding and support from the Family Hub and the Start for Life programme have enabled the service to extend its health visiting specialist team to deliver more perinatal mental health support, including baby massage and specialist Video Interaction Guidance (VIG) interventions.
An example of this is a Health Visitor and parent whom we will call Katie to protect identification. On the initial home visit, new mum Katie was a little bit tearful and explained to her Health Visitor she felt her baby was really unhappy and always cried in pain. Katie later shared she also had a history of depression and anxiety.
Katie was supported by the Specialist Health Visitor with an infant massage referral for the baby and encouraged to self-refer to emotional well-being sessions for herself. She was offered the infant massage sessions at home to alleviate her anxiety. During this time Katie and her Health Visitor had concerns about Katie's mental health and obtained advice from the Perinatal Mental Health team. An urgent referral was made and an assessment was carried out straight away by professionals; Katie was put forward for counselling.
For the baby, Katie and her partner were supported to obtain specialist advice from a Paediatric surgeon, which led to a further referral to a consultant and a diagnosis of severe reflux. Katie was also referred to bespoke play and stimulation sessions, which included brain development discussions, the importance of communication, and bonding, which also became a space for Katie to share any worries or concerns.
Successes
Katie has now been discharged from the Specialist Health Visiting team.
When Katie entered the service her GAD-7 (generalised anxiety) score was 12, this decreased to 4. When Katie entered our service her EPDS (Edinburgh postnatal depression scale) score was 18, which decreased to 12.
Service user feedback:
‘’Hey (health visitor), I wanted to send you a message to let you know that baby has changed so much. He’s babbling now, only really at home but he’s all babababa or mamama, it's very cute. He’s also sitting up and eating well. I wanted to just update you that we are doing better, thanks for everything.’’
Visit the Family Health and Lifestyle Service website for more information.