haPPIE™ SHE Cares: Maternal Mental Health Module
Personalised support, co‑designed with women, delivered at scale
Context & Challenge
Prenatal Care Pressure Points
NHS maternity services are under pressure: rising referrals for pregnant women, workforce burnout, and missed early warning signs during pregnancy.
Opportunity
Shift from reactive crisis care to early, personalised support for pregnant women that builds trust and reduces escalation to serious conditions.
Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy
Maternal mental health affects 1 in 5 women during pregnancy or postpartum. Pregnant women from Black and Ethnically Minoritized backgrounds face systemic barriers to mental health care during this crucial time.
Pregnancy Distress Identification
Late identification of distress during pregnancy leads to crisis, costly interventions, and loss of trust in prenatal care.
What is haPPIE SHE Cares?
A collaborative personalised maternal mental health support module brought to you by The Essential Baby company Ltd: trusted by women, backed by data, and designed to prevent crisis before it starts.
Developed with over 600 diverse women.
Ongoing input from 40 participants representing historically underserved populations in the mental health sector: refugee women, Caribbean, African, South Asian, all supported by 4 Diverse Community Group Leaders located across Birmingham, Manchester, Leicester and Nottingham.
"We are validating this module not just for emotional benefit—but for crisis prevention, workforce relief, and system trust rebuilding. It's co-designed, clinically aware, digitally scalable, and ready to shift the narrative from late intervention to early, personalised care."
haPPIE SHE Cares collaborators
haPPIE: SHE Cares, an innovative partnership between Blum Health with ERA Care, Diverse Community Group Leaders (DCGL), The Essential Baby Company Ltd (TEBC), The Essential Baby Co CIC (haPPIE Research Group), and Dr. Julian. Our project creates a culturally sensitive digital and community-based support network for Black and Ethnically Minoritized (BEM) women facing mental health challenges during the perinatal period.
Brief Overview of Our Proposed Solution haPPIE: SHE Cares integrates self-assessment tools, virtual therapy, and community-based support to provide early identification and access to culturally competent care. Our aim is to merge ERA Care's innovative self-assessment tool, haPPIE: SHE Cares Toolkit, Dr. Julian's digital therapy platform and utilise existing community networks into a seamless process that:
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Supports maternal mental health while enhancing patient and public involvement.
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Enhances existing perinatal mental health pathways to ensure equitable access to care
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Aligns with the ambition to move services out of hospitals into the community while achieving sustainability and net-zero goals.
How?
haPPIE: SHE Cares module integrates self-assessment tools, virtual therapy, and community-based support to provide early identification and access to culturally competent care.
Our enhanced perinatal mental health pathway aims to:
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Supports maternal mental health while enhancing patient and public involvement.
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Enhances existing perinatal mental health pathways to ensure equitable access to care
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Aligns with the ambition to move services out of hospitals into the community while achieving sustainability and net-zero goals.
Pilot Pathway
Initial Contact
All Service User informed about ERA Care in 3rd trimester or after birth
Consent Process
Service User consents to sharing of name and contact details with ERA Care following birth in order to generate self check-in questionnaire. (See ERA Care slide)
Identification
Midwife identifies 20 Service Users who identify as Black or ethnically minoritized - send names via secure email to The Essential Baby Co
Initial Communication
All Service User receives an SMS/ email via ERA Care informing them they will receive a link to the self check-in questionnaire at a later date
Project Recruitment
Selected Service User contacted by The Essential Baby Co- Ask if they want to join the project= yes*/No.
Self-Assessment
Woman receives self check-in questionnaire via ERA Care 4 weeks postnatal by SMS/email
Personalised Support
Self check-in results= guides woman through 3 different health outcomes**: (1) Engagement with social group and MNVP (2) social signposting (3) Immediate mental health support signposting **Newcastle perinatal mental health
pathway- led outcome
Service User says YES to participating in the project =
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Personalised emotional support: monthly psychologically safe online sessions, building trust and inclusion
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Community‑led options: haPPIE SHE Cares Toolkit, peer groups, culturally intelligent resources, single trusted source
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Early risk reduction: Access to instant virtual therapy sessions via Dr Julian, tools to prevent isolation or crisis during pregnancy and after birth.
Data Management
Data reporting via ERA Care shows number of Service Users signposted to additional services
Service Monitoring
Number of referrals to additional services monitored to ensure service demand can be met
Service Improvement
Data used to inform service provision in response to local population
ERA Care - Resource Commitment, Training & User Registration
Resource commitment
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30 minutes of training. We aim to provide a recorded session for accessibility.
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Community or postnatal midwife will spend around 4 minutes explaining the project to each patient. This should be absorb into the midwives discussion around mental health and wellbeing check during their routine postnatal assessment.
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Maximum of 2 minutes entering a patients name, email address and mobile number into ERA Care system. We only need access to postnatal clinics or healthcare professionals who have contact with patients after birth.
ERA Care registration screen.
Midwife to enter time and date, Service User name, mobile number, email address and click consent.
This completes the ERA Care registration.
Enhancing Your Existing Perinatal Mental Health Service
Cross-Sector Collaboration
Combining healthcare, mental health, and established community services into one cohesive care pathway via digital platforms.
Trigger-Based Interventions
Using evidence-informed risk criteria to identify at-risk women early and provide tailored postnatal support.
Digital Platforms & Seamless Referrals
Providing scalable self-assessment, online therapy sessions, with unique URL referrals to streamline access and coordination.
Culturally Appropriate Content
Co-produced online resources and monthly community group sessions to challenge stigma and improve health literacy.