The year of care campaign, with Aolish Gormley

Sligo business owner Aolish Gormley struggled with her mental
health after having her second baby.


Despite many strides in maternal care in Ireland in the past
decade, suicide remains the leading cause of death for new
mothers, having increased in recent years, according to recent
figures from Mental Health Reform.


The amount of support available for struggling mothers varies
hugely according to contacts Aolish has received through the
campaign’s social media channels.


“In a lot of cases, women will be referred to the perinatal
mental health team by their GP... There's varying reports on that
in terms of waiting lists and how long it takes to be seen,
depending on the area that you're in, or to be referred to
private counselling... depending on the pressure on the system,”
she says.


“So if there's a lot of women looking for it or if there's a lot
of pressure, then you could be looking at some women who say they
have waited six months for appointments with counselors... when
you’re talking about that data with suicide rates, six months for
anybody that's struggling with their mental health is too
long. 


“A day is too long for some people really struggling with their
mental health.”


One major issue for the campaign is the lack of mother and baby
psychiatric units.


 “We should have three. We don't have any. And that means
that if a mother does have to be admitted to a psychiatric unit,
she has to be admitted without her baby. And I have spoken to
mothers who have said firstly that that sent them even into a
worse downward spiral, because they had to leave their babies,
and I've spoken to other mothers who refused that care and
refused to get the help that they really, really needed and knew
that they needed because they could not bear leaving their
babies. And that's the situation that some mothers are being
faced with, and in 2026 that really is not good enough.”


Aolish has established the Year of Care campaign to lobby for a
full year of postnatal mental health care for new mothers
including GP follow ups and establishment of a perinatal
mother-and-baby unit.


Woman who suffered postnatal depression calls for more mental
health support for new mothers


Surge in rate of new mothers dying from suicide


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