Address
Lanchester Road Hospital
Lanchester Road
Durham
DH1 5RD
Telephone Number
Service opening hours
Monday – Friday 9am – 5pm
Who are the perinatal mental health team?
The County Durham and Darlington perinatal community mental health team provides a community service to support women who are experiencing mental health difficulties during pregnancy or in the first year after they have had their baby.
The team is made up of specialist community psychiatric nurses, psychiatrists, psychologists, occupational therapists, specialist community nursery nurses, support workers, team manager and administrative staff
How we can help
We understand that it can be very challenging if a loved one experiences mental health difficulties, particularly during pregnancy and after having a new baby and this can be difficult for partners and families to deal with.
This is where our service can help, as well as us providing support to your partner or family member, we can also support you. We can refer you for a carers assessment, which will explore your individual needs and support you to get the help that you need.
If we decide that the perinatal service is the best service to support your partner or family member, they will be allocated to one of the clinicians within the team. The team will then work with your partner or family member to agree a care plan to help meet their individual needs and find solutions to support them on their road to recovery.
This can include:
- Individual work
- Group work
- Talking therapies
- Parent/child interactions
We are happy for you to be involved in all of this, with you partners or family member’s permission. You can contact us at any time if you are concerned about your partner or family member and baby.
Out of hours support
If you or your partner need help outside of the perinatal team’s normal working
hours, you can contact the crisis team on 111, option 2
Further support information
More information is available via the below websites:
- General information and advice
- Help with accessing and completing benefit and grant forms
- Carer breaks
- Carer support groups
- Counselling
- Training
- Mental health problems
- Drugs and treatments
Local
- Durham County Carers Support – www.dccarers.org/county-durham.html
- Darlington Carers Support – www.dccarers.org/darlington.html
- Durham Carers Info point – www.durhamcarers.info/
National
- Carers – www.carersuk.org/
- Carers Trust – https://carers.org/
- MIND – www.mind.org.uk
- Association for postnatal illness – www.apni.org
- Action on postpartum psychosis – www.app-network.org
- Pandas Foundation – www.pandasfoundation.org.uk
- The Royal College of Psychiatrists – www.rcpsych.ac.uk
- DadPad – www.thedadpad.co.uk
How can I get the support of an Independent mental health
advocacy? (IMHA)
Independent mental health advocacy (IMHA) services provide an additional safeguard for patients who are subject to the Mental Health Act. IMHAs are specialist advocates who are trained specifically to work within the framework of the Mental Health Act (the Act) to meet the needs of patients.
Independent mental health advocacy services do not replace any other advocacy and support services that are available to patients but are intended to operate in conjunction with those services.
For more information, please head to the IMHA Procedure: Independent mental
health advocacy IMHA procedure – Tees Esk and Wear Valley NHS Foundation
Trust (tewv.nhs.uk)
