Mothers with mental illness: Public Health Nurses' perspectives

Abstract

Mothers with mental illness are in need of support as they struggle to cope with competing demands of their illness and those of parenting. Health professionals’ attitudes and experiences have been shown to affect how clients with mental illness are assessed and what resources are provided. The purpose of this research was to explore and describe experiences of Public Health Nurses (PHNs) in Manitoba who visited families in the postpartum period. Qualitative data were collected via focus groups consisting of PHNs within the city of Winnipeg. Emerging themes, “Dealing with where they’re at”; “Treasure hunting”; “I kept wanting more”; “You can only do so much” together aimed at a common theme, “Helping Moms succeed”. Results suggested that PHNs wanted to provide the best resources for mothers to succeed at parenting. PHNs provided recommendations for the needs of families and changes in practice to help improve service to families.