PODCAST: Sally Tribe, IESO Digital Health discusses Internet Enabled Cognitive Behavioural therapy (IECBT) at Maternity, Midwifery & Baby Birmingham 2017.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) report that worldwide 10% of pregnant women and 13% of women who have just given birth experience a mental disorder, primarily depression.
Mental health issues, if left untreated, can lead to enormous suffering and disability for the mother and reduced response to the child’s need. Prolonged or severe mental illness hampers the mother-infant attachment, breastfeeding and infant care.
Not all women are diagnosed. Women are still experiencing stigma and there are factors that mean poor detection. We need to think about how the mental health profession can eradicate these barriers. Early detection and intervention can mitigate these effects and Evidence suggests that treating mental health issues in pregnancy and after birth can have benefits in terms of the child’s growth and development.
IESO successfully utilise Internet Enabled Cognitive Behavioural therapy (IECBT) to provide this specific patient group with greater access to specialised CBT and help to overcome some of the barriers pregnant women and new mums often report. From January 2014 to February 2017 320 perinatal patients were discharge after a course of treatment with ieso. Women whom have received treatment report increased access and shorter waiting times. Our data highlights that attrition is low when the patients use this forum, meaning that more patients are being seen and demonstrating improvements.
Find out more about IESO and Internet Enabled Cognitive Behavioural therapy (IECBT) here.