What is the Welsh Government doing to improve perinatal mental health services in mid Wales?
Since 2015 we have invested in specialist perinatal mental health services across Wales. There are now services in every health board area in Wales and over £3m of mental health service improvement funding is supporting these services annually.
All local health boards are working towards meeting the relevant Royal College of Psychiatrists’ quality standards. In Powys the health board has undertaken its first peer review of the standards to inform their forward work plan. Meeting the standards is also a condition of the additional mental health service improvement funding being made available again in the 2022-23 financial year.
The National Clinical Lead for Perinatal Mental Health is leading on the national NHS Mental Health Network’s work programme. This includes the development of a fully integrated care pathway and supporting health boards to work towards meeting the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ quality standards.
We will shortly be providing a comprehensive update to the Children, Young People and Education committee on progress against the recommendations from their report on perinatal mental health in Wales.
We have previously confirmed our commitment to ensuring that improving perinatal mental health services continues to be a priority in the successor to our Together for Mental Health Strategy. This will be informed by the current independent evaluation of the strategy and ongoing stakeholder engagement.