Royal College of Psychiatrists Statement on #everyonesbusiness campaign
Statement: From current and past presidents, Royal College of Psychiatrists, on launch of Maternal Mental Health Alliance’s Everyone’s Business campaign
Current and Past Presidents of the Royal College of Psychiatrists come together to highlight Maternal Mental Health Alliance’s Call to A.C.T. - call postcode lottery of services ‘a disgrace’.
The current and past Presidents of the Royal College of Psychiatrists today jointly welcomed the launch of the Maternal Mental Health Alliance’s Everyone’s Business campaign and their Call to A.C.T. Professor Sir Simon Wessely (President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists) and Professor Dame Sue Bailey (Chair of the Children and Young Peoples Mental Health Coalition (CYPMHC) and Immediate Past President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists) said:
“It is a disgrace that although one in ten mothers will develop a mental illness either during or in the first year after pregnancy, half of the women in the UK do not have access to specialist community perinatal mental health services. The current postcode lottery of provision means women are left to suffer, families risk breakdown, children suffer and society suffers. It is frankly unacceptable that suicide is one of the leading causes of death for women during pregnancy and one year after birth.
“We wholeheartedly welcome the Maternal Mental Health Alliance’s Everyone’s Business campaign which calls for Accountability for perinatal mental health care to be clearly set at a national level and complied with, for Community specialist perinatal mental health services meeting national quality standards to be available for women in every area of the UK and for Training in perinatal mental health to be delivered to all professionals involved in the care of women during pregnancy and the first year after birth.
“We are pleased that the RCPsych Faculty of Perinatal Psychiatry was able to assist the Alliance with its mapping of current services, and we will lend whatever advice or support is needed by those at the helm of health policy in the four nations for them to act to address this iniquitous and unjustifiable variability which penalises women – wives, partners, daughters and friends - at their most vulnerable. By improving the health (and there is no health without mental health) of any woman you improve the lives of their children, generations of children to come, and it leads to more flourishing communities.”