Mental health and child care needs of mothers with psychosis

Citation

Morris, B. (2001), "Mental health and child care needs of mothers with psychosis", International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Vol. 14 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijhcqa.2001.06214fab.007

Mental health and child care needs of mothers with psychosis

Mental health and child care needs of mothers with psychosis

A new study in the UK by Dr Louise Howard and colleagues at the Institute of Psychiatry, published in the May issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry, has found that 63 per cent of women with psychotic disorders were mothers. Women with children were not different clinically from women without children, but mothers were more likely to be older and live in unsupported accommodation. It also found that having had a child looked after by Social Services was associated with being detained under the Mental Health Act, being younger, having a criminal history, and being Black African.

The study used data from the PriSM Psychosis Study, a non-randomised, controlled trial of two types of community mental health services in South London. An analysis was made of the characteristics and needs of 246’women with children, comparing women with children with women without children. A total of 39 per cent had a clinical diagnosis of schizophrenia, 31 per cent affective disorder and 30 per cent other diagnoses, 155 (63’per cent) of the women studied had children and 50 had one child; 45 had two; 32 had three; 13 had four; and 15 had more than four children.

It was found that women with children were more likely than women without children to have contacts with relatives and less likely to have contacts with acquaintances. A total of 22 per cent of the women with children rated themselves as having problems with child care and 10 per cent had a history of having had a child in the care of social services.

Making satisfactory arrangements for child care when mothers relapse can be a particular problem, which may explain why detention under the Mental Health Act is strongly associated with "looked after" children. Mothers with psychoses need help in planning alternative care for their children during periods of relapse.

Although the numbers in the study were small and the results should therefore be treated with caution, the authors comment that the risk of Black African women's children being taken into care is strikingly high compared with other groups. Immigration status also explained these findings, which may explain some of the ethnic discrepancy. The authors state that possible interactions between mental illness, ethnicity and socio-economic deprivation, and their impact on parenting and the need for children to be looked after by the care system, should be investigated in future research.

The study concludes that the majority of women with psychotic disorders have health and social care needs related to pregnancy and child care that may not be recognised by providers of mental health services. These findings have implications for the mental health of mothers with psychosis, their children's health and for the planning of mental health service delivery.

Further information from Dr Louise Howard at the Institute of Psychiatry press office. Tel: (+44) (0)207 919 2830.