This morning I attended a meeting of the NW Infant and Maternal Mental Health network. I represent the service users. There are some very passionate professionals in this area who undoubtedly do a great deal to get action in this area BUT lack of funding is getting in the way of progress.
I also feel we need more support groups in the UK which can be done on relatively small budgets as peer support is so useful. It seems we have to prove to commissioners that maternal mental health is a 'cost saving' exercise in the long run. I admit I got very frustrated and expressed my worry that as we were there planning more meetings that real people are suffering NOW and when will ACTION actually take place? The same message of needing a managed clinical network has been on the cards for years. PLEASE LET THE COMMISSIONERS HEAR OUR PLEA.
The dreadful irony was that as I was speaking a lady WAS going through hell in Manchester. Within hours the news broke that she had stabbed and killed her two babies.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/7726077.stm
That poor lady will have to face the fact she murdered her own children. Society will brandish her as evil. Yet in reality her mental state, I am assuming, gave her delusions and therefore unable to make rational thoughts. Once she 'recovers' she will have to face the awful consequences of her illness. How much more needless suffering and deaths due we have to hear of before someone takes notice??
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