I called five psychiatrists in the community
before we found one. It was hard finding the
appropriate support. We could have been
given contact information when leaving the
hospital. And even then, have them set it
up. Take some pressure off us. Just walk
out, and walk into community support.
The majority of support available to the fathers was
from their immediate families. Many of the fathers
felt that familial support was all the support they
needed. For example:
It was basically family that provided the
major support and that was good enough.
Once I felt she was under the care of a
psychiatrist who could appropriately look
after her mental issue needs, we had
enough support in our family that we kept
functioning.
Barriers to Support. Two themes related to
the partners’ barriers for support emerged:
health service barriers and personal barriers
(Table 2).
The main barrier to support for the fathers was that
health care providers were perceived as unsupportive.
They stressed that health care providers
were too clinical and not flexible in their treatment
plans. Many fathers also described not
being able to support their partners while they
were in isolation rooms because health care
providers often did not allow them access. They
also felt their partners needed to see their infants,
yet health care providers often would not
allow mothers to see infants during the entire
hospital stay. One father explained, “Being put
in isolation rooms and separated from babies.
That’s pretty inhumane. I’m not really in a position
to describe exactly what a better system
might look like, but it would be a lot gentler on the
mothers.”
The fathers also reported that they thought health
care providers did not listen to what they had to
say and did not take their opinions seriously. They
felt that health care providers had a predetermined
treatment plan based on their partners’ diagnoses
and did not take into account their unique support
needs and preferences. As one partner described,
“Health care providers are very hesitant
to take those affected into account. They are more
interested on where they peg you on the spectrum
and what that diagnosis implies and that’s
how they treat you.”