Barriers to psychological support following early miscarriage. Perspectives of the UK-based IAPT perinatal champion.

Background: Early miscarriage has been linked to a wide variety of subsequent psychological difficulties. Despite this, challenges in accessing appropriate psychological support following early miscarriage are emphasised throughout the literature. Few studies have explored barriers to accessing support following early miscarriage from the perspective of healthcare professionals providing support, and none of these have focused solely on National Health Service (NHS) primary mental healthcare settings.

Aim: This study therefore sought to address the gap in the literature through a qualitative exploration of the perspectives of perinatal champions working within Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) services. These are practitioners specifically allocated to the role of providing specialist perinatal support within the UK primary healthcare system and therefore deemed to be in a position most likely to be providing support for people following early miscarriage. The aim of this study was to elicit a fuller, critical understanding of the potential barriers to accessing psychological support following early miscarriage within a UK context, with the hope of eliciting suggestions for how to improve it.

Method: 12 participants took part in semi-structured interviews exploring their experiences of providing psychological support for people following early miscarriage.

Results: Thematic analysis of the interview transcripts yielded four key barrier themes: unclear guidance, service-centred care, journey to role, and societal stigma.

Conclusion: This study has implications in terms of informing service structure, roles, and training within IAPT to improve pathways to support, following early miscarriage.