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Health visitors' perceptions on their role to assess and manage postpartum depression cases in the community
Author(s) -
Alexandrou Foiniki,
Sakellari Evanthia,
Kourakos Michael,
SapountziKrepia Despina
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
health and social care in the community
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.984
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1365-2524
pISSN - 0966-0410
DOI - 10.1111/hsc.12638
Subject(s) - psychological intervention , postpartum depression , intervention (counseling) , nursing , qualitative research , medicine , perception , depression (economics) , community health workers , welfare , family medicine , psychology , environmental health , health services , pregnancy , population , social science , genetics , macroeconomics , neuroscience , sociology , economics , biology , political science , law
Abstract The present study gives an insight into the health visitors' perceptions on their role in assessing, managing, and supporting mothers with postpartum depression (PPD). The study took place in Cyprus among health visitors of a community Maternity and Child Welfare Clinic using qualitative approach. Data were collected through individual semistructured interviews. The findings showed that although health visitors are able to identify PPD cases, they stress the importance of protocols and evidence‐based care as well as preventive interventions, and they also point out the importance of home visits. Finally, they support the need for education. It is concluded that health visitors can play an important role in women's health and their intervention on the prevention of PPD in the community especially through home visits is very important.