Specialist Perinatal Mental Health Service

Our community-based service supports mothers who are experiencing, or who have previously experienced, severe mental health difficulties during pregnancy or up to a year after birth.

We provide support to women and their families across East Sussex, West Sussex, Brighton & Hove and East Surrey. Our leaflet explains the service in more detail:

Specialist perinatal mental health service leaflet

Who are we?

We have four teams of perinatal mental health professionals from a range of different disciplines. These include psychiatrists, mental health nurses, psychologists, parent-infant psychotherapists and nursery nurses.

They are all highly trained and specialise in perinatal adult and infant mental health.

What we do

We offer mums, their babies and families a safe and specialist meeting with one of our team to help them think about what they are going through and how being pregnant, or becoming a parent, has affected their wellbeing and that of their partner or wider family.

We provide our specialist service within:

family homes
accessible community venues
some maternity hospitals, GP surgeries and children’s centres

Partners are welcome at all our clinic appointments.

How do I get help from the service?

Individuals cannot currently refer themselves to the service, but a referral can be made by any health professional. This includes midwives, health visitors, GPs, hospital-based teams, children’s centre and social workers, child and adolescent mental health services, adult mental health workers, assessment and treatment teams, crisis teams and all primary and secondary approved mental health professionals. If you are concerned about your own mental health, or that of a friend or family member, please talk to one of these professionals about making a referral.

GPs should refer through their patient booking system as they would for any other mental health referral.

All other healthcare professionals should complete one of the following referral forms and return it to spnt.perinatalreferrals@nhs.net or fax to 0300 304 4985:

Coastal West Sussex referral form

North West Sussex and East Surrey referral form

Brighton and Hove referral form

East Sussex referral form

Where are clinics held?

We are a community-based service. As well as providing our specialist service in family homes, we hold clinics in a range of locations including community venues, maternity hospitals, GP surgeries and family centres. We will talk to you about where you would like your appointments to take place and agree a venue together.

Click here to view an interactive map of where our clinics are located

Help in an emergency

During 9am-5pm, if there is immediate risk to a mother or her baby, please call your GP or go to A&E.

If you know, or are looking after a woman and her baby who you believe is in crisis and requires an urgent response out of hours, please call the Sussex Mental Healthline, Monday to Friday from 5pm-9am, and 24 hours at weekends and Bank Holidays on 0300 5000 101.

In East Surrey, the Mental Health Crisis Helpline is available Monday to Friday 5pm-9am, and 24 hours at weekends and Bank Holidays on 0300 456 8342. SMS texting for people who are deaf or hard of hearing is available on 07717 989 024.

How to contact us

Professionals who have any questions about our service, or who are not sure whether to refer a woman and her baby, or an expectant mother, can call one of our administrators, who will put them in touch with a specialist practitioner for an initial consultation:

Coastal West Sussex: 0300 304 0214
Northwest Sussex and East Surrey: 0300 304 0213
Brighton and Hove: 0300 304 0097
East Sussex: 0300 304 0212

SMS texting for people who are deaf or hard of hearing is available on:

Coastal West Sussex: 07388 994 062
Northwest Sussex and East Surrey: 07388 228 048
Brighton and Hove: 07808 632 004
East Sussex: 07388 227 937

Alternatively please email spnt.perinatalreferrals@nhs.net

Further information

You may find this short film useful. It explains more about conditions such as anxiety and depression which can develop anytime from conception through the first year of a baby's life (created by NHS London Clinical Networks).