15 December 2022
The Tees perinatal mental health team has been recognised nationally by the Royal College of Psychiatrists Perinatal Quality Network (PQN) – for delivering high quality care.
The team provides a community service to support women in Teesside, who are experiencing mental health difficulties during pregnancy, and those in the first year after they have had their baby.
The PQN was first started to develop and maintain standards for mother and baby units, later expanding to include standards for community perinatal mental health services – part of its commitment to promote perinatal mental health.
The accreditation and review process are used to promote the highest level of care and takes place every three years. It covers three main phases of the accreditation review: a detailed self-review, a detailed peer review and a decision about accreditation category and feedback.
Across 18 months, the team measured their performance against the 202 PQN service standards. These are then verified by a peer review team typically consisting of members of the PQN – including medical, nursing, MDT members and additional representatives.
Consultant Psychiatrist at the Trust, Dr Natalie Smith said: “The accreditation process has required a lot of hard work from the team, but we are incredibly proud that we’ve been able to demonstrate the excellence of our work and achieve accreditation.”
Doreen Morris, Tees Perinatal Mental Health team manager added: “It’s amazing news and we are looking forward to developing services, to keep on providing specialist perinatal mental health for the Teesside Community.”
