We are delighted to let everyone know that Jo Johnson has successfully completed her PhD at the University of Worcester.
Jo is a midwife and health visitor who took time out of clinical practice to conduct research into referral pathways for women who require specialist mental health care during pregnancy and the postpartum. She interviewed midwives and health visitors about their knowledge and experience of referring women and used a questionnaire to gather data on a much larger sample of midwives and health visitors.
Her findings have shown areas where improvements could be made to the mental health training of midwives and health visitors, and where referral pathways could be clarified and simplified to ensure that pregnant women and new mothers who need it are able to receive specialist mental health care.
Jo is now working back in the NHS putting her research findings to good use in a clinical context – and championing the importance of perinatal mental health care. She will be writing up her research findings to publish in journals and share more widely.
Well done Dr Jo Johnson from all of us in BDRN. This is a tremendous achievement and we are very proud of you.