Psychotherapy - Psychiatric Assessment - Monitoring in the perinatal period

Description

Psychotherapy is a type of therapy used to treat emotional problems or difficulties and mental disorders through talk. At the Day Centre psychotherapy is provided by mental health specialists (psychologists or psychiatrists).

The psychotherapist urges the patients through their interventions to:

• understand their problem in depth and the nature of the difficulties they are facing,
• know themselves,
• find answers to questions,
• take action and find solutions,
• make choices that will help them change, so that they can be satisfied with their lives.

This process helps patients to learn to “listen” to themselves and respect their deeper needs and desires, improve the quality of their life and relationships.

Indicatively, during perinatal and reproductive period, women and their partners may receive psychotherapy for difficulties regarding:

• the relation with their partner,
• the relation with other members of the family (parents, partner’s parents, siblings, other children),
• discomfort caused by the transition to parenthood,
• difficulties due to the conditions of life and the events occurring during perinatal period (e.g. problems at work, illness of relatives, death etc.),
• current symptoms of mental disorders (stress, depression, guilt, doubts on the role as a parent, constant negative thoughts, concerns and fears etc),
• concern on recurrence of past mental disorders etc.,
• stress occurring in high-risk pregnancies or in cases of fertility problems or miscarriages,
• stress occurring in cases of hospitalisation of the newborn, perinatal death (voluntary termination of pregnancy or upon medical recommendation, miscarriages, intrauterine death etc).

Psychiatric assessment is the systematic assessment of:

• symptoms,
• behaviour,
• causes,
• development,
• impact of a mental disorder.
• Psychiatric assessment usually results in a diagnosis and a treatment plan for each person. The treatment plan may include pharmacological treatment or any other treatment intervention. If there is indication of the need for pharmacological treatment, the treatment is always based on the special needs of each person. Particularly in the case of pregnant woman or new mother, pharmacological treatment should be followed upon careful risk-benefit assessment for each specific case.