New Darwin service provides parents with mental health support

Expectant and new parents in the Northern Territory suffer from some of the country's highest rates of depression and anxiety, but mental health services for those seeking help are sparse.

That is why a new, first-of-its-kind specialist service, designed to help close that gap, has received a warm welcome since opening in a rural community near Darwin.

Funded jointly by the federal government and Gidget Foundation Australia — a charity that has opened 34 similar services in other states — the Berry Springs clinic plans to see 700 patients a year, through face-to-face and telehealth appointments.

Young mother-of-two Natalya Wallace said the foundation's service in rural Queensland had helped her overcome severe mental health struggles after she suffered a uterine rupture during the birth of her second daughter three years ago.

She said she narrowly survived the ordeal and, while her body had quickly healed, she was left with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), flashbacks, anxiety, panic attacks, sleeplessness and crushing fear.

"I was so worried that if I fell asleep I wasn't going to wake up, because of my birth experience, as well as being surrounded by anxious thoughts of things becoming very catastrophic,"

she said.

Ms Wallace said while it was common for women to experience hormonal changes in the early days after birth, for her "it just never got better".

"Being in rural and remote [areas], where you don't have that access straight away to healthcare, you sort of have to put up with it and think: Maybe it is baby blues?" she said.

"But sometimes it's not, and you do need that extra support."

Eventually, a GP referred Ms Wallace to the new Gidget Foundation specialist service for pregnant mothers and new parents in the area where she lived.

She said they suggested Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy, "in which you can use eye movements or tracking a ball" visually to help the brain process traumatic experiences.

"It helped me to separate the fear behind my symptoms, it helped desensitise it all," Ms Wallace said.

"If you're not 100 per cent well for your children it's going to take a toll on you and them, so it's really good to have the services here ready to go."

A much-needed service in the NT

Federal government data shows the Northern Territory has the lowest availability of psychologists in the country — 83.9 per 100,000 people, compared to 178.7 in the ACT.

The NT also has the highest suicide rate in the country, more than double that of eastern Australian states — 17 per 100,000 people, compared to 7.7 in the ACT.

Gidget Foundation chief executive Arabella Gibson said the NT service, which is offering Medicare-subsidised sessions, was much needed.

"There's over 3,500 new births in the Territory every year, and of those parents having babies, at least 1,200 of them will be diagnosed with perinatal mental ill health, so it's really significant," she said.

"We know about 100,000 Australians every year will be diagnosed with perinatal depression and anxiety, and that's about one in five mums and about one in 10 dads, so certainly here in the Territory the numbers we are seeing are on the higher side."

Woolwonga woman Nancy Jeffrey, whose country is near Berry Springs, is an Indigenous mental health advisor for the charity, and said more services were urgently needed.

"My niece lives near here and she really suffered with her last baby, but there was nowhere to go," she said.

"And with really remote communities like Wadeye, those parents have to come into Darwin six weeks before they have their babies at the Darwin hospital, and that plays on their mental health.

"That traumatises them, being away from family and community, it's just not our way of being.

"If we have mental health services then they can build skills so they have hope."

Zoe Sladdin, one of the new Berry Springs service's mental health nurses, said many of her patients experienced mental health issues for the first time during pregnancy, but there were many effective treatments.

"There are medications that are safe for pregnancy and for breast feeding and, if women need that, if parents need that, letting them know that it's okay is important — and it doesn't necessarily have to be forever, it might just be for a period of time to help them through," she said.

"There are lots of evidence-based therapies that, particularly if they're started in pregnancy, are going to make the postpartum period better for them."

The federal government has committed a total of $40 million to opening more Gidget services across the country.

"This investment will mean 20 centres opening across the country — one right here in Berry Springs, the ninth to be [established] nationally and the first in the Northern Territory — but there will be more to come," Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Assistant Minister Emma McBride said.