Due to the diversity of risk factors for peripartum mental health problems, it is necessary to engage multidisciplinary health care providers, such as psychiatrists, obstetricians, pediatricians, nurses, psychologists, pharmacologists, and social workers, and to connect with community welfare service to address the peripartum mental health problems. Although multidisciplinary health care providers are already available in a general hospital, systematic collaboration among them is not easy. The guideline for peripartum mental health is useful in building an effective team of multidisciplinary health care providers.
Meanwhile, perinatal women have limited access to necessary medical service due to various restrictions of migration and time caused by the state of being pregnant and holding newborn infants. Furthermore, in recent years, the COVID-19 pandemic has made it more complicated. Our previous research have shown that anxiety and thought of self-harm were aggravated among postpartum mothers in Japan during the COVID-19 pandemic. Possible barriers to the use of medical services preventing COVID-19 infections must be considered. Although leveraging technologies of the WEB system is thought to extend the reach of intervention, the scheme of support system is not enough. Enhancing the willingness of individuals and their families to use the service is thus necessary. This article describes a attempt of parenting support committee comprising multidisciplinary health care providers in our general hospital to address these issues.
Authors' abstract
Multidisciplinary Collaboration Care for Perinatal Mental Health in a General Hospital: The Report from a Perspective of a Psychiatrist
1 Department of Psychiatry, Saiseikai Yokohamashi Tobu Hospital
2 Department of Neuropsychiatry, Toho University Faculty of Medicine
2 Department of Neuropsychiatry, Toho University Faculty of Medicine
Psychiatria et Neurologia Japonica
125: 587-593, 2023
https://doi.org/10.57369/pnj.23-083
https://doi.org/10.57369/pnj.23-083
<Keywords:perinatal period, mental health, multidisciplinary collaboration, guideline>