Culturally sensitive perinatal mental healthcare v1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A qualitative interview study examining ethnic minority women’s experiences of perinatal mental health services.
IRAS ID
319722
Contact name
Angelene Gardner
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of East Anglia
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
N/A, N/A
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 8 months, 28 days
Research summary
How a person sees themselves and their cultural or ethnic background can have an impact on their care. People from ethnic minority backgrounds also report that health services do not always support people’s cultural needs when providing care, and this can lead to poorer experiences and health outcomes. \n\nWe would like to talk to women who have received care from mental health services which support women during or after their pregnancy. These services are called perinatal teams, and they support women with their mental health during pregnancy and until their child is 12 months old. Research has found that women from ethnic minority backgrounds are met with many challenges when using these services. These challenges include being unaware of what help there is, language barriers, perceiving services to be insensitive to their beliefs, and the fear of being judged by healthcare staff. We do not know the specific impact that ethnic and cultural identities have on perceptions of perinatal mental healthcare. There is also little research on how perinatal services can deliver care to meet the specific needs of ethnic and cultural minority women.\n\nThe current study sets out to explore ethnic minority women’s experiences of NHS perinatal mental health teams. Eight to 12 women from minority ethnic backgrounds in the East of England will be interviewed. The interview questions will focus on how women were able to access NHS teams, their experiences of the care, how they feel cultural identity and ethnicity shape their care, and ways in which teams could provide better care. Key themes will be identified from the interviews. The findings will seek to help NHS teams work with women from differing cultural backgrounds.\n
REC name
South West - Frenchay Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
22/SW/0173
Date of REC Opinion
21 Dec 2022
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion