During the perinatal period, women experience physical, mental, and social changes and are prone to mental health problems such as depression and anxiety. Continuous support throughout pregnancy is essential for women with psychosocial risk factors such as unexpected pregnancy, young age, unmarried, financial problems, and mental illness. The perinatal mental care clinic established since 2008 in the Department of Psychiatry, Tohoku University Hospital has been working for the treatment of pregnant women with mental illnesses and multidisciplinary collaboration both inside and outside the hospital. In particular, the problems of childcare are insufficient childcare skills due to severe mental illness or intellectual problems, agitation, and strong impulsivity, and the isolation of mothers due to lack of childcare support. It is important not only to stabilize mental illness throughout the perinatal period, but also to evaluate feelings of mother towards children, bonding, childcare, existence of childcare support and interpersonal relationship, and to share information with public health nurses and children welfare centers. While sharing information, it is desirable to get the consent of subjects, however, in the case of "specified pregnant women" who are deemed to be particularly requiring support before childbirth, the provision of sharing of information from the hospital to the administrative agency through the regional council for Children Requiring Aid is not considered a breach of confidentiality. The role of a psychiatrist is to collaborate actively with multiple institutions while understanding the roles and functions of multiple occupations, to provide a psychiatric evaluation of pregnant women, to share their diagnosis, and to advise on future involvement.
Authors' abstract
The Role of Psychiatrists in the Prevention of Child Abuse: The Practice of Perinatal Mental Care Clinic
1 Department of Psychiatry, Tohoku University Hospital
2 Department of Psychiatric Nursing, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine
3 Department of Psychiatry, Graduate School of Medicine, Tohoku University
2 Department of Psychiatric Nursing, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine
3 Department of Psychiatry, Graduate School of Medicine, Tohoku University
Psychiatria et Neurologia Japonica
123: 640-646, 2021
<Keywords:child abuse prevention, perinatal mental health, multidisciplinary collaboration>