Child safety issues and parental mental health issues could have been overlooked during the pandemic, a children’s charity has warned.
Health visitors play a “critical role” in protecting children and identifying mental health risks.
But some visitors had to be rescheduled because of Covid and social distancing halted routine contacts
The Welsh Government said face-to-face contacts are expected to resume in March 2021.
Three weeks into the first lockdown, Rhian Vaughan Hughes gave birth to Elsie.
As new parents living away from family in Cardiff, Rhian and her partner turned to the health services when they were concerned about their daughter’s diet.
Although Rhian received some advice over the phone, she said no one had visited for almost two months.
“I was a little worried because she wasn’t being fed well.
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“I called them several times and they said as long as she was in wet diapers and gaining weight she would be fine.
“It would have been nice to have seen someone face to face. All you want is reassurance that you are doing things right.”
Rhian said she now realizes her mental health has been compromised.
“I just felt like I was asking for support and asking for help and they gave some advice over the phone but it wasn’t the support I wanted.”
Health visitors go to a family’s home after the birth of a baby and in a child’s early years.
Regular visits are made to monitor a child’s development, assess possible risks within the home and provide parental support.
A Cardiff and Vale University Health Board spokesman said: “We deeply regret that Rhian was unable to meet her health visitor in person.
“Unfortunately, throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, the health department has had to adapt service delivery to national guidance, which meant that all in-person visits were only carried out when absolutely necessary and when the doctor, following a risk assessment, had concluded that they were not were able to adequately provide counseling over the phone or virtually.
“During this difficult time, important contacts have been prioritized and a dedicated hotline has been set up for families to ask a health visitor for advice.”
The health department apologized for any frustration, acknowledged the “extremely challenging time for new parents” and said in-person visits have now resumed.
“There is no other healthcare profession like ours,” said Tesni Rogers, a health visitor from Abergavenny.
“Our work is going out, working with families, working with children from 10 days old to five years old.
“We offer support to parents, we look at the house, how a mother looks or talks, we can pick up the smallest thing.
But in March 2020, in-person visits for families not deemed to be at risk were halted and health visitors such as Tesni were reassigned to other units within hospitals to help with the spread of Covid.
During the pandemic, some specialist centers have been set up and sessions have been held via video call for some parents.
“It wasn’t the usual service we would do, but we still served the community… but we couldn’t read it the same way.
“Someone might say, ‘Oh yeah, I’m fine’ on the phone, but then put the phone down and cry.”
The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children Cymru (NSPCC Cymru) is concerned that mental health issues and child safety issues may have been overlooked.
“We are really concerned that health visit contacts may have been missed as a result of the pandemic,” said Dr. Sarah Witcombe-Hayes, the charity’s Senior Policy Officer.
“If these visits are missed, this could be a truly missed opportunity to identify families suffering from perinatal mental health issues and any babies or young children who may not be reaching these developmental milestones.”
“Ensuring child protection is a really important part of the health visitor’s role and they have unique skills in assessing the well-being of a child and a family.
“And that’s why home visits by the health visiting team are so important.”
Michelle Moseley, from Welsh’s Royal College of Nursing, has been working as a health visitor and says services have been “seriously hampered”.
Despite understanding that demand in intensive care units was high during the first lockdown, Michelle questioned whether shifting health visitors was the right decision.
“It was done for a reason, but in hindsight maybe there could have been other backup plans and maybe there are [health visitors] should not have been removed at the time.
“Health Visitation Services are now seeing the ripple effect on perhaps some of the child’s developmental issues, but also on the mental health and well-being of parents and carers who may not have received the mental health support they would have previously been exposed to.”
A Welsh Government spokesman said changes had been made to the Healthy Child Wales Program in response to the pandemic.
But since March last year “it expects all health authorities, without exception, to offer the full range of contacts of the Healthy Child Wales programme.”
“Contacts may still be offered virtually, rather than face-to-face, depending on the circumstances of each family and the professional judgment of the health visitors involved.”
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