Exploring the current practice of health visitors to assess and support paternal mental health

Abstract

The importance of identifying and supporting paternal mental health during the perinatal period has been gathering momentum. Health visitors are ideally placed due to their contact with families to assess and support paternal mental health. The aim of this study was to explore health visitors' current practice to assess and support paternal mental health and identify any barriers preventing this in practice. A small-scale, anonymous electronic 12 question survey was conducted. Purposeful sampling method was used to recruit health visitors (n=120) from across three health visiting services provided by UK NHS Trust selected for this study. Survey response rate was low (n=36), limiting the potential to generalise findings to the wider health visiting population. Most respondents were discussing paternal mental health during contacts with families, and four main barriers impeding the assessment of paternal mental health were identified. Respondents identified that paternal mental health training would support their own practice.