Browsing by Author "Baron, Emily"

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    Perinatal Mental Health project
    (2014-09-29) Honikman, Simone; Baron, Emily; Field, Sally; Meintjies, Ingrid; van Heyningen, Thandi
    The Perinatal Mental Health Project (PMHP) addresses mental illness among pregnant and postnatal women and girls. The aim of PMHP is to ensure all women in South Africa have access to mental health care during and after pregnancy, as a routine part of their health care. Maternal mental illnesses, particularly common mental disorders such as depression and anxiety, are very common in low-income and informal settings. While maternal mental illness affects 10% to 15% of women in developed countries, prevalence is almost 40% in South Africa. Most of the women in South Africa who experience maternal mental illness are poor, from disadvantaged communities who face many challenges in accessing health services and treatment.
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    Stepped care for maternal mental health: a case study of the perinatal mental health project in South Africa
    (Public Library of Science, 2012) Honikman, Simone; van Heyningen, Thandi; Field, Sally; Baron, Emily; Tomlinson, Mark
    Common mental disorders such as anxiety and depression are the third leading causes of disease burden globally for women between 14 and 44 years of age [1]. By 2030, these are expected to rise to first place, ranked above heart disease and road traffic injuries [2]. A recent systematic review reveals that maternal mental disorders are approximately three times more prevalent in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) than in high-income countries (HICs), where the related burden of disease estimates range between 5.2% and 32.9% [3],4. In HICs, maternal suicide is the leading cause of death during the perinatal period, and while there is a relative dearth of information about maternal suicide in LMICs, the estimates are similarly high [5],[6]. Untreated maternal mental illness affects infant and child growth [7] and the quality of child care [8], resulting in compromised child development [4],[9]. Community-based epidemiological studies in South Africa have shown high prevalence rates of depressed mood amongst pregnant and postnatal women. In a low-income, informal settlement outside of Cape Town, 39% of pregnant women screened positive on the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) for depressed mood [10] and 34.7% of postnatal women were diagnosed with depression [11]. In a rural area of KwaZulu-Natal province with high HIV prevalence, 47% of women were diagnosed with depression in their third trimester of pregnancy [12].