How hospital in the home helped Newtown mum with post-partum psychosis
A Newtown mum has opened up about her experience with post-partum psychosis, which made her think she was a celebrity and a spy.
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A Newtown mum has opened up about her battle with post-partum psychosis, and how an innovative in-home mental health care program helped her recover from a relapse.
Jac Kirkman’s initial mental health episode “really came out of the blue” after the birth of her son three years ago, with no past experience of mental ill-health and no family history to suggest any risk factors.
According to the Royal Women’s Hospital, post-partum psychosis is a serious and rare mental illness that starts soon after childbirth.
Ms Kirkman’s symptoms began about four weeks after giving birth, and they had become severe within a fortnight.
She was hallucinating, hearing voices and experienced delusions including thinking she was a celebrity and a spy.
She described the “surreal” experience as feeling as if everything was heightened.
“It was like I was in a different universe,” she said.
The 33-year-old said at that time she was so ill she required acute care at Barwon Health’s inpatient Swanston Centre, where she stayed for two three-weeks stints across late 2019 and early 2020.
Earlier this year, she had a relapse of psychosis.
“I had a two-year-old and wasn’t as critically unwell because I had been taught the warning signs that helped me know what to do,” she said.
“The psychosis presented as a lot of magical thinking, like I was getting messages from the TV and radio, but this time around I was fortunate to have insight to know that it wasn’t reality.
“I hadn’t quite lost full contact with reality, but I was having lot of difficulty sleeping and I knew that if I couldn’t get a handle on it, I’d get worse.”
Themum-of-one was treated by a Victoria-first hospital in the home (HITH) program at Barwon Health following her relapse this year.
Since April 2021, a multidisciplinary team has provided an alternative option to hospital admission for those experiencing an acute episode of mental illness.
The mental health HITH program, which won Barwon Health a Victorian Public Healthcare Award on Thursday, offers specialist support in the comfort of the home.
With “nine beds” now available, an average of 18 people a month are receiving intensive, specialist mental health support and treatment in their home environment, alongside their family and carers.
As part of her HITH treatment, Ms Kirkman received two daily visits from a mental health nurse and psychiatrist for several weeks, spending about two hours in total with her and her family each day.
Ms Kirkman said she felt blessed to be involved in the pilot program, receiving compassionate care at home without being separated from her then two-year-old son.
“It was incredible and I really felt treated with such dignity, like they had taken on board my views and what I wanted from my care,” she said.
“I would’ve otherwise had to go back into the ward, away from my son and my support system in the community.”
The Deakin University optometry lecturer said she believed her recovery and return to work benefited from the care she received at home.
“Acute care facilities are very important and my experience at the Swanston Centre was really good, but it’s not the right place for everyone who needs care,” Ms Kirkman said.
“To take someone out of their comfort zone and put them into an adult psychiatric ward can be distressing compared to being treated at home.”
Mental health HITH nurse unit manager Emily Fryman said feedback had shown that culturally-appropriate treatment and care for the entire family promoted prompter recovery, as well as a more sustainable recovery that could strengthen family relationships.
“Feedback shows that individuals can eliminate the need for hospital admission, or significantly reduce the length of stay in hospital by engaging with the mental health HITH program and receiving the intensive support that they need without having to leave home,” she said.
Barwon Health mental health, drugs and alcohol triage: 1300 094 187
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Originally published as How hospital in the home helped Newtown mum with post-partum psychosis
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