Warwick nurse in line for award after postnatal depression

Leanne Howlett also runs the By Your Side forum which helps parents with their perinatal mental health

A woman whose postnatal depression inspired her to retrain as a mental health nurse has been nominated for an award.

Coventry University student Leanne Howlett created a wellbeing pack while on work placement to ease patients' anxiety about being discharged.

The former solicitor is now in the running to become the Royal College of Nursing student nurse of the year.

"I'm so honoured to have been shortlisted," she said.

"I really hope I can inspire other students to know that they can make a difference."

Ms Howlett, from Warwick, experienced postnatal depression after the birth of both of her children and the care she received prompted her change of career.

While on placement at Rise, Coventry and Warwickshire's specialist mental health service for children and young people, she remembered how "scary" the moment of discharge was.

"Even though I knew I was well enough and I was ready to be discharged, I was worried about being on my own and what was next because I wanted that security blanket of the health practitioner there," she says.

"I very quickly realised how difficult a time that discharge was for the patients, how unsettled it made them feel, and how the presentation of change would make them start to display symptoms of risk, anxiety and depression."

Her resulting discharge wellbeing pack, summarising the skills patients have learned while undergoing treatment, is now handed to everyone leaving Rise care.

Rise practitioner Nicola Evans said the pack Ms Howlett created would "transform daily nursing practice".

"On behalf of RISE and CWPT, I would like to take the opportunity to say a big thank you for the difference it has, and will continue to make, in the lives of so many young people."

The Royal College of Nursing awards winners will be revealed at a ceremony in Liverpool on 10 November.