Including the voice of women with lived experience

Including the voice of women with lived experience

To incorporate the voice and perspective of women with lived experience in our Multidisciplinary Team specialist perinatal mental health training our Psychology directorate consulted Maternal Mental Health Scotland (MMHS) for guidance.

The training is for staff working in Specialist Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Teams (such as Mother and Baby Units and Community Perinatal Mental Health Teams). It forms part of the learning programme we have developed for the induction of specialist staff. It includes our seven Essential Perinatal Mental Health e-learning modules, and two webinars on physical health concerns for mother and infant.

Clare Thomson, participation officer for MMHS liaised with her colleagues who provided written feedback responses to the four case studies subsequently used in the training. These responses were woven through the training and one comment in particular was shared at the at the start of the training to set the tone for the day:

What does bring her joy when she isn’t ill? She has a lot of expertise in her own illness, please listen and learn from her. And talk to her about what she does like – movies, music, whatever, just find the person hidden behind the anxiety and depression.

In addition, following an appetite from attendees for more inclusion of service user perspective, Clare drew our attention to the MMHS website, Invisible Truths, and suggested we incorporate this artwork into the training.

We include some examples of the artwork in the training and set a task for attendees to look at the website between sessions 1 and 2. We asked attendees to come to session 2, ready to speak about a piece of art or poetry that stood out for them and why.

Trainer Observations 

• Attendees were struck by the quotes and examples of artwork itself and many commented on the impact of this straight away.
• The discussions at the start of session 2, in relation to staff reactions to the artwork and poetry on the website between sessions, were enthusiastic and thoughtful - with little need for encouragement to speak from the trainers.
• Attendees chose many different pieces of art and poetry as having resonated with them. The themes of the discussion ranged from staff sadness and anger at the experiences of women and wishes for services to better meet their need and hopes for the current expansion to empathy and recognition from their own parenthood experience and hopefulness from examples of how services had helped. 

Quotes from staff members on service user elements of the training:

“I am thinking of putting some of the quotes from the women with lived experience and also the reminder points up on the wall in our big room just to remind staff of the importance of not only listening to our patients though also not making assumptions when assessing our women.”

“I also enjoyed seeing the quotes from the women with lived experience as their views and contributions are so valuable in our work. I found the poem and artwork from Invisible truths very emotional and thought provoking as this gives us an insight into what these women have and still may be experiencing when living with maternal mental illness.”

“Really liked the use of service user feedback.” [when asked what the most enjoyable or helpful part of the training was]

“Reading the advice and feedback from service users and reviewing and discussing the art on the invisible truths website.” [when asked what the most enjoyable or helpful part of the training was]

“The parts from MMH Scotland were really useful e.g. quotes and opportunity to reflect on artwork/poetry.” [when asked what the most enjoyable or helpful part of the training was]

“The thoughts from women that have experience of perinatal mental health and being introduced to the maternal mental health Scotland website.” [when asked what the most enjoyable or helpful part of the training was]

We are grateful for MMHS’s contribution to the specialist training. It has made a meaningful difference to the impact of the training. We would like to extend our thanks to Clare Thomson for offering her consultation, knowledge and passion to the process.

Leah Cronin (NES Principal Educator) and Marie Claire Shankland (Programme Director)

 

---