Listening Visits to Mothers’ Suffering with Mild to Moderate Peri-Natal Depression; Critical Issues of Clinical Supervision, Training and Health Visiting Capacity to Tackle Health Inequalities

Abstract

The importance of United Kingdom health visitors' in the detection and treatment of peri-natal depression in primary care services is well documented. Evidence based policy and clinical guidelines make recommendations for the prediction, detection and treatment of women with mild to moderate depression in the postnatal period continuing up to a year after delivery. An inter-professional cross organisational practice development project aimed to assess the provision of antenatal and peri-natal mental health care within one health visiting service in accordance with NICE guidelines (2007). This paper discusses the disparity between guidelines and health visiting practice; a lack of training in listening visits or other psycho therapeutic methods, poor access and availability of clinical supervision, commissioning reforms leading to larger health visiting caseloads suggesting the service is unable to meet NICE recommendations. Lastly, the evidence suggests the scope and practice of community nurses' within health visiting teams should be expanded.