A visit to Preston North End FC for Lancashire Care Trust Perinatal Mental Health event

n the 3rd August 2017 Lancashire Care Trust invited a range of stakeholders, including people with lived experience, to a discussion day to work through pathways, priorities and good practice to ensure their new eight-bed perinatal mental health inpatient unit for Cumbria & Lancashire, and the experience of care, as effective as possible for everyone. 

APP's Peer Support Coordinator, Hannah, was delighted to attend alongside Dr Giles Berrisford (APP Chair) and recounts her visit to Preston North End Football Club...

'It was a rainy, grey day as I drove over to Preston North End football club for the Lancashire Care Trust Perinatal Mental Health (PMH) event – hardly summer weather, but this is the UK after all, and being from Yorkshire, I have to say it was also due to being on the “wrong side” of the Pennines!  APP had been invited earlier this year to become involved in the development of one of four new Mother & Baby Units (MBUs), with Lancashire Care Foundation Trust being the provider for a new unit in Chorley. The event was held as a discussion day to work through pathways, priorities, challenges and good practice to make the unit and the experience of care as effective as possible for everyone, so I was really keen to hear more about it and see and hear from other key stakeholders.

I was also really pleased to be meeting two APP volunteers at the event, Jane and Gillian, who both experienced PP and are from the North-West. It was great to be able to link them with other professionals at the event as being some more local contacts for APP – we all left having given our details to be involved in the continued engagement work ahead of the new unit opening in 2018. There were others with lived experience there too and it was nice to be able to give some APP literature to people directly affected, as well as the professionals in the room. We consistently get really good feedback about our peer support and Insider Guides, so it meant a lot to know what a difference it can make. There were also representatives from other voluntary and community organisations and I hope we all did a good job in getting the APP message out. Feedback from the group work in the afternoon particularly mentioned Gillian’s input and how the things she talked about and the support that professionals can give had really impacted on them. Well done Gillian!

The morning was a very full session of speakers, introduced by the Trust’s Chief Executive, who had special dispensation to attend her Board meeting late – such is the priority for PMH and the interest and engagement from all involved. This was also reflected in the number of psychiatrists in attendance, both general and specialist perinatal, as I counted at least 6 from as far afield as the Midlands and Morpeth! Dr Giles Berrisford, Associate National Clinical Director with NHS England (NHSE) for Perinatal Mental Health, and APP’s Chair of Trustees, had been caught in traffic on the M6 so we swapped time-slots and I talked about my experience of PP and my involvement with APP, which seemed to be well received. The social media activity was also great to see, with some really touching comments.

Giles’ presentation about the National Perspective followed, and we also heard from Leeds and Manchester about their services and shared learning about both in-patient and community services, as the new MBU will also offer Outreach. Dr Gillian Strachan, Consultant Psychiatrist with Lancs Care and a current PMH Bursary Holder with NHSE, kept the morning moving to time and we also heard about the development so far of the MBU.  There was also an interesting presentation from the architects and designers about their vision for the Chorley MBU, and their engagement with other stakeholders including those with Lived Experience of PMH. The MBU & Outreach will cover Cumbria as well as Lancashire so it was especially valuable to hear about challenges such as travel and rurality, something I know from my experience living in rural North Yorkshire.

Lunch was an opportunity for further networking which everyone seemed to take advantage of; with the room overlooking the football pitch, there was also a few mentions of people feeling that they were being disloyal to their team by being there! The group work in the afternoon, focussing on questions which were approached by people working in different teams, also produced lively discussion and feedback. Before long we were all headed home to various teams, towns and homes in the North-West (and me back to Yorkshire!) with a renewed passion and determination to make sure that women and their families have access to the best PMH care, as locally to them as possible. Thank-you to all at Lancashire Care Trust for having APP as part of your event and we look forward to further involvement and the MBU opening in 2018!