Maternal mental health provision - aibu

[custodial2]

I am wondering how many new mothers would feel safe in this scenario.
New mother has PND following on from ante-natal depression, and against a background of major depressive disorder before pregnancy.
Local town has a mental health centre. New mum is attending a follow up appointment with psychiatrist (not perni-natal specialist).
The centre has a small entrance lobby with receptionist behind glass. Then a large waiting room. New mum brings 5 week old baby in his lie down pram.
In the waiting room is a very ill seeming man, dressed in army fatigues. He is repeating "I am a paranoid schizophrenic", and other concerning phrases, he seems very disregulated and unwell.

AIBU to feel this whole scenario was concerning? New mum was rather unwell, and unable to advocate for herself - ie, ask for a chaperone - and there did not appear to be any alternative place to wait, just the consultation room beyond.

No it’s not great however my autistic 20 year old has to navigate places like this alone. MH provision for all including vulnerable young teens newly transferred form CAMHS is dire. This is the reality but nobody wants to know until their child is caught up in it.

Both people were in the correct waiting room for their appointment, so while not a great environment I’m not sure what the alternative would be other than asking every patient to wait outside the building until their appointment time however then you would just have the same issue with everyone outside?

Not sure the significance of her being a new mum. It’s not ideal at all but sadly the nature of centres treating those with mental health issues means that those in a crisis may be there and they may display concerning behaviour.

add to that the lack of staffing most of these places have and they are stuck between a rock and a hard place

At the risk of sounding harsh, two people with mental health problems were in a mental health centre so I’m not really sure what else would be asked for.

The significance is the 5 week old baby lying flat in the pram.

There are a fair few mother and baby mental health units in the county, and other appointment were sometimes conducted in those places.

Sometimes back at the general centre.

Why?

You genuinely can't think of any risk?

No more than for any other vulnerable young person who is a patient. The baby is the responsibility of the mother and the mother is no more vulnerable than any other patient, probably a whole less so than many.

The mother is severely ill.

So are the other patients. The mother (and those helping her which I assume includes you) decided to expose the baby to the environment, she didn’t need to be there. The patients do.

realisrically though a 5 week old will be blissfully unaware!

Perinatal services are often held in the same mental health units anyway so I'm not sure what your expecting tbh op
Both people were in the right place where multiple clinics operate at the same time

I understand why you feel uncomfortable. I work in a mental health setting and have experienced similar issues. We were able to plan appointments so that the patient spent minimal time in the waiting room; so they arrived bang on time for their appointment and the clinician was always ready to bring them in straight away, so there was minimal time in the waiting room.

I would discuss this with the team / psychiatrist. It should be important to address these sort of barriers, and come up with solutions.

So can all patients ask for that?

And so are many young people who may well be far more ill.

The baby did need to be there (presume you mean the baby, but he is a he).
Unfortunately the mother was unable to ask for help in caring for her baby whilst she attended.

But they dont have tiny babies with them?

Need of patient comes first. My autistic child is as vulnerable and can’t advocate for herself either.

Not sure how often.
There are dedicated eg

KMPT | Perinatal Mental Health Community Service (PMHCS) https://share.google/HxYzqlmcM0BjGMygE

Go with him?

Seriously, I think youre being obtuse

Thank you for this insight.

Out of the other side, but its veey hard when you are so unwell to see and understand what is going on.

Lots of vulnerable MH patients live no where near parents or have parents who need to work . Patient need isn’t based on who is accompanying the patient.

I get it it’s shit but you don’t jump to the top of the queue because you have a baby.

people with schizophrenia are highly unlikely to be a risk to random babies (or random adults for that matter. ) They’re much more likely to be a risk to themselves or from others (exploitation etc.)

I dont think anyone has mentioned queue jumping.

By their very nature, however, perinatal mental health services do have time constraints.

A woman is not classed as perinatal when her baby is over a number of months old. There are specialist provisions for women experiencing mental health problems in the perinatal period.

In sorry that's seems so hard for you to accept.

It’s a worry than you only think MH facilities and vulnerability matter when a baby is involved. Other people’s children who are incredibly vulnerable young people have to navigate this type of thing every day alone. To glibly say go with them sums up the attitude. One could say leave the baby at home.