Canterbury mums with postnatal depression waiting months for help

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Mums dealing with postnatal depression in Christchurch are having to wait months to access a specialist service.

The Canterbury-based Post-Natal Adjustment Programme is run through Plunket and funded by Canterbury DHB.

One mum, who wants to remain anonymous, was told via email that due to the wait list there will be no appointments until the New Year.

It said they are currently in discussions to increase accessibility and to contact her GP if she was worried about her mental health.

While the mum, who is pregnant with her second child, said she is lucky to have great alternative support - she can't imagine the despair of others suffering in the depths of newborn days.

Plunket has been struggling financially, with its fundraising drying up during lockdown and not meeting the threshold for the Covid-19 wage subsidy.

In a statement, Plunket said the waitlist highlight's the importance of maternal mental health support and need for more funding around the country

It said some regions don't have any programmes and it is grateful to the Canterbury DHB for the funding which helps around 700 mums a year.

A Christchurch organisation working at the coal face of postnatal depression said there is been surge in cases due to Covid-19.

Perinatal Wellbeing Canterbury refers women to the Plunket programme and has seen a surge over the past few months.

Operations co-ordinator Erin Manning said over October they were dealing with six referrals a week from mums who were pregnant or had their babies during the lockdown.

"It was a nice quiet time and people could come a visit and bond with their babies but now a lot of babies are at 3 or 6 months old and they're suddenly realising they don't have a support network."

Manning said not only are the number of cases growing, they are getting more severe.

Three years ago Plunket would have been seeing women with mild to moderate cases of postnatal depression but that has changed, she said.

"Now they would be dealing with the moderately severe women, where their community group are only supposed to be seeing quite mild cases, they're now seeing mild to severe cases ."

Manning said the hospitals are only dealing with the top three to five per cent.

In July, the Government announced a further $180m would go into the maternity sector, taking the total investment to $242m over four years.

A $1.9b mental health package was announced as part of Labour's well-being budget last year.