An Angus mum is calling for a specialist mother and baby mental health unit to be set up in Dundee after witnessing her sister’s “traumatic” postpartum psychosis.
Margaret Reid’s sister developed the serious mental health condition shortly after giving birth, and was sent with her baby to a specialist unit in Livingston for treatment.
However when she relapsed she was not able to go to this specialist centre and was instead sent to Carseview Hospital in Dundee without her child.
Ms Reid, from Forfar, said the whole ordeal was “very hard” for the whole family.
She now wants to see mental health treatment for new mums in the area completely overhauled, including creating a specialist mother and baby unit in the area.
‘The whole experience was really traumatic’
Postpartum psychosis is a serious mental health illness that affects a new mum soon after they have a baby and can cause hallucinations, delusions, manic moods and depression.
Mum-of-three Ms Reid said the current “broken” system needs drastically changed.
She said: “She was initially put to the Livingston mother and baby unit which is a great facility.
“But the second time it happened she had to stay in the area because her child was too old for a mother and baby unit.
“She went to a unit which deals with every type of mental ill health and it was really poor.
“The whole experience was really traumatic and very hard for us.”
She said having her child with her was key to her sister’s recovery the first time she developed psychosis.
But this type of treatment was not available the second time round as there is no specialist unit in Tayside and mother and baby units only accept children up to the age of one.
Ms Reid added: “When you find out you’re pregnant it is exciting but it can also be scary because you are trying to keep this little person growing inside you safe, and sometimes things don’t go as planned.
“We never thought we would be in this situation and then when we needed it, it let us down.”
‘It is so wrong for women that unwell’
Ms Reid has now submitted a petition to the Scottish Parliament calling for the whole system to be overhauled.
Currently there are only two mother and baby units in Scotland – one in Livingston, and one in Glasgow.
Ms Reid said: “I want to make a change because it is so wrong for women that unwell with scary mental health not to get specialised treatment.
“Dundee desperately needs the mental health side of things looked at – it is extremely poor and I couldn’t believe how bad it was.”
This comes only months after NHS Tayside was told it has a “long way to go” to fix the region’s mental health crisis.
In February 2020 a probe known as the Strang report called for a radical new approach to mental health in Tayside after a “breakdown of trust” – however a report published earlier this year said “significant progress” was still needed.
This is on top of delays to opening a mental health crisis centre in the city.
Ms Reid’s petition also calls for family liaison and specialised perinatal community teams to be set up across the country.
She said: “Families are kept in the dark and have no one to ask what it all means or what to do next.”
There has been a community perinatal mental health team in NHS Tayside since November 2021 for women experiencing or at risk of severe mental illness during pregnancy or for up to 12 months postpartum.
Scots have ‘no idea’ how unequal care is
Ms Reid has been working on this call with North East MSP Tess White.
Ms White said access to postnatal healthcare can be “fraught with difficulty” because of the location of services.
She said: “It should not be the case that a new mother has to contend with reduced access to mental health services at such a crossroads in their life – and their newborn’s – just because of where they live.
“I believe this petition will strike a chord with Scots who otherwise would have no idea how scattered and unequal postnatal mental health services really are.”
NHS: Carseview ‘fully supports’ new mums
The Scottish Government has recently carried out a consultation on postnatal mental health services, which concluded a new mother and baby unit should be opened in the north of Scotland.
This would be in either Tayside, Grampian or Highland health board area.
A spokeswoman for the government said it has invested £26 million to improving services, and said NHS National Services Scotland is currently reviewing the cost, equity of access, safety and sustainability of postnatal mental health services.
A spokeswoman for NHS Tayside also added every effort is made to make sure new mums go to a mother and baby unit as it can be upsetting to be separated from their newborn.
However they added: “Patients admitted to Carseview with postnatal depression are fully supported and whilst Carseview is not a dedicated mother and child facility, every effort is made to ensure close links and access to families and children.
“Each ward has a space where families and children are encouraged to visit where this is clinically appropriate and beneficial for the patient.”
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