Our Specialist Perinatal Service works with women and birthing people who live in:

Cheshire, East, Cheshire West, Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens, Warrington and Wirral

Who are:

  • Thinking about or planning to have a baby
  • Are pregnant
  • Have a baby up to 24 months old

Women and birthing people can be referred to a Specialist Perinatal Mental Health Teams according to the area they live in.

We accept referrals from Midwives, Health visitors, children’s centres, nurseries, GPs, therapists, and any voluntary organisation working with the family.

If you are currently experiencing or at risk of experiencing perinatal mental health illness symptoms, You can be referred to this service by any of your:

  • healthcare professionals, such as a Midwife, GP, Health visitor, Therapist, Social Worker
  • or voluntary organisation worker such as children’s centre worker, home start, community/local centre, nursery, etc.

Discuss making the referral with them and if you agree and consent, they can make the referral, it’s the first step in trying to feel better.

The team will contact you to discuss the next steps and possible options of support.

Referrals for one to one support and preconception appointments can be made by contacting us directly for discussion in the first instance, or by usual the referral route through your local mental health assessment team.

You can contact us for advice or to make a referral on 01925 275 303 for Halton, Knowsley, St Helens and Warrington and on 0151 702 4012 for Liverpool and Sefton. Open from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.

You must have the consent of the women/birthing person to send the referral to the team.

Please find the referral form below. Once completed you can email it to the team on the email address found at the bottom of the referral form:

Referral Form

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It helps if you can tell us what support or intervention the family are being referred for, but this is not essential. Please see some of the interventions listed in the doucment attached or “we can help with…” section.

The pathways below may help you in seeking support and contacting the best service for perinatal mental health.

If you want to talk things through, or unsure about making a referral we are happy to do so on the phone by contacting the perinatal team in your area

(Monday – Friday, 9am – 5pm):

You can find the North West Coast Perinatal Clinical Network Pathways below:

We can help with...

We offer one off preconception appointments to provide advice, guidance and signposting tosupport women who are thinking about or planning to have a baby, who:

  • Have a history of complex mental health problems
  • Are taking medication for mental health problems
  • Are worried about the impact having a baby will have on their mental health
  • Have anxiety around pregnancy, childbirth or becoming a parent.

We provide one-to-one assessment and ongoing support for women who are pregnant or have a baby who is under 12 months, and:

  • Are currently experiencing complex or severe mental health problems
  • Have a history of or are at risk of developing severe or complex mental health problems during the perinatal period, even if they are currently well.

Following this assessment, We can offer a choice of interventions for these difficulties, or contact other services to make sure you can receive the right care, in the right place, at the right time.

We provide advice over the phone for any health or social care professionals working with women and birthing people from preconception to 24 months postnatal.

  • This includes advice around prescribing mental health medications in pregnancy and risk-benefit analysis
  • Discussing referral options
  • Signposting to other perinatal mental health and parent infant relationships support or services.

Give us a call – we are here Monday to Friday,  9am to 5pm.

We have a wide variety of evidenced based support and treatment in perinatal services including:

  • Appointments planned around the family – at home or in their local area.
  • Perinatal Practitioner led intervention and support
  • Occupational therapy
  • Pharmacological treatments
  • Community integration support
  • Peer support from mums with lived experience
  • Individual Psychological therapies such as: Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT), Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT), Eye Movement Desensitisation Reprogramming (EMDR), Attachment Narrative Therapy (ANT), Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT), Mentalisation Based Therapy (MBT)
  • Parent infant therapy and interventions such as: Video Interaction Guidance (VIG), Circle of Security Intervention (COSI), Newborn Behavioural Observation, Infant Massage
  • Groups such as:  walking group, music group, Circle of Security Group, perinatal compassionate mind group, and more coming soon.

 

 See Cheshire and Mersey Specialist Perinatal Services Levels of Need and Menu of Perinatal Interventions in the attached document.