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<p>This Government is committed to improving perinatal mental health services for
women during pregnancy and in the first postnatal year, so that women are able to
access the right care at the right time and close to home.</p><p> </p><p>The Department
is investing £365 million to 2020/21 in perinatal mental health services, and NHS
England is leading a transformation programme with the development of specialist perinatal
mental health community services across England with their investment of £63 million
between 2016/17 and 2018/19. We want to ensure that more women each year are able
to access evidence-based specialist mental health care during the perinatal period.
This includes access to psychological therapies and specialist community or inpatient
care. The importance of this is reflected in both the <a href="https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/national-maternity-review-report.pdf"
target="_blank">NHS England ‘Better Births</a>’ report of the National Maternity Review
(2016) and the ‘Five Year Forward View for Mental Health.’</p><p> </p><p>General practitioners
(GPs) and primary care teams have a role in supporting the identification of perinatal
mental illness and treatment, and are part of an integrated pathway of services.</p><p>
</p><p>The Better Births report outlined that better postnatal care was a key requirement
for improved maternity services. It recommended that women should have access to their
midwife and obstetrician as they require after having had their baby, as well as the
need to ensure a smooth transition to on-going care in the community from their GP
and health visitor.</p><p> </p><p>Forty-four Local Maternity Systems have come together
across sustainability and transformation partnership footprints to lead the transformation
of local maternity services, and are developing plans to deliver the vision of Better
Births, including the recommendations on better postnatal care. Additional national
support will be provided through an Expert Reference Group, convened by NHS England,
to identify further opportunities to support improvements to postnatal care.</p><p><strong>
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