Specialty Doctor in Perinatal

Job summary

This post entails caring for women with mental health problems throughout the perinatal period i.e. in pregnancy and up to the first year postnatal throughout Cardiff and Vale UHB. It is possible that in the future this may be extended to the second year postnatal and involve more work with the family as a whole and greater consideration of infant mental health. The team works closely with maternity services and health visiting and also is part of the Managed Clinical Network of Perinatal Mental Health Services across Wales. The community service has gradually developed over the last 21 years and was greatly boosted by monies from the Welsh Government given to all Health Boards across Wales to develop or improve Perinatal Mental Health Services. The perinatal mental health service has developed strong working relationships between the different professions and the multi-disciplinary team is supportive and the Perinatal Psychiatry role is highly valued.

Main duties of the job

Referrals currently come from maternity services and CMHTs, GPs and Health Visitors. There is a weekly referral meeting where referrals are allocated to the appropriate member of the team or seen for assessment. As our work has a preventative focus, we monitor women at risk of significant mental ill-health closely through pregnancy and do what we can to reduce their risk postnatally. We complete a mental health birth plan, usually along with the midwife at around 30 weeks of pregnancy. The team provides both antenatal and postnatal group-delivered psychological interventions that treat both the parent's mental health and any difficulties that arise in the mother-infant relationship. There would be opportunity for the new post holder to be involved in these interventions. The psychology team also provide individual, couple and dyadic interventions for mothers, partners and babies. We endeavour to provide psychological therapies specific to the perinatal period though difficulties may reflect longer standing problems that have not previously been addressed and are exacerbated by the pregnancy/birth. We often straddle the gap between primary and secondary care providing a truly 'specialist' service. There will be opportunities for the post-holder to become involved in perinatal mental health research along with colleagues in the perinatal team and clinical academics at Cardiff University.

About us

Cardiff and Vale University Health Board is one of the largest Integrated Health Boards in the UK, employing over 17,000 staff, providing over 100 specialist services. Working across 6 hospital sites, we have a diverse range of career opportunities to offer. Serving over 500,000 people living in Cardiff and the Vale, we are focussed on the health and care needs of our local population whilst working with our partners to develop regional services. Together we are committed to improving health outcomes for everyone, delivering excellent care and support.

Our mission is "Living Well, Caring Well, Working Together", and our vision is that every person's chance of leading a healthy life should be equal. Our 10-year transformation and improvement strategy, Shaping Our Future Wellbeing, is our chance to work collaboratively with the public and our workforce to make our health board more sustainable for the future.