Africa-Press – Seychelles. Seychelles is commemorating the Maternal Mental Health Week for the first time, making it an important milestone for the maternal health programme as well as the mental health service.
The one-week event by the Ministry of Health kicked off yesterday morning at the Sheikh Khalifa conference centre with the official launch of the project to integrate maternal mental health in the overall maternal health programme and services.
Held under the theme ‘Stronger together’, the programme is aimed at raising awareness, influencing policy, changing attitudes and reducing the stigma of maternal mental health.
World Maternal Mental Health Day is celebrated annually on the first Wednesday in May, and throughout the whole first week of May. It draws attention to essential mental health concerns for mothers and families. This year’s global theme is ‘Together in a changing world’.
Through this year’s event the Ministry of Health said it aims to increase awareness in order to drive social change and provide services, with a goal towards improving the quality of care for women experiencing all types of mental health problems.
In his address to officially kickstart the event, the chief executive of the Health Care Agency, Dr. Danny Louange, expressed his delight to be attending such an important event.
“The mental health of women during and after pregnancy is often overlooked and the integration of the maternal mental health programme within the aftercare of women is one that is crucial,” he said.
During yesterday’s ceremony, the maternal health programme manager, Veroniqua Bresson, gave an overview of the programme.
Speaking to the local media, she said the programme was initiated following the realisation that Seychelles lacked the mental health care with women before and after birth.
“We introduced this as a programme so that we can establish it into the services that already exist,” she said.
She also said that the midwives have been trained to detect the signs of mental health issues, which would help with the steps needed to be taken.
For her part, Brigitte Gbilimou, who is a clinical psychologist on the maternal mental health programme, outlined the role of social workers, the maternal health pilot project, which started in September last year, as well as contributions from the Family Affairs department.
Another presentation was by Theresia Esparon, the chairperson of the newly registered community support group named ‘Our Baby Angel Foundation’, who gave the audience a more in-depth explanation of the foundation and its purpose.
She said that the psychological impact of pregnancy loss is often underestimated, despite being one of the most difficult and painful experiences.
The foundation aims to provide support to families who have experienced pregnancy or infant loss.
It should be noted that in May 2013 the World Health Organisation (WHO) released a comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan 2013-2020, which sets out clear actions for member states, the WHO secretariat and international , regional and national partners, to promote mental health and well-being for all, to prevent mental health conditions for those at risk and to achieve universal coverage.
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