Postpartum Support International.
PMHA-POC was created to fill a gap in support services for professionals and communities of color around perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, and we are thrilled to have our work supported by an organization that has been a leader in our field. Our mission and vision to support professionals and families of color around perinatal mood and anxiety disorders align with PSI’s vision that all families will have access to the information, support, and care that they need around these complications. Our becoming a part of PSI embodies our shared commitments to collaboration, advocacy, and building stronger support systems for both families and professionals.
For years, PSI has taken active steps towards increasing diversity within their organization and outreach to underserved communities; bringing PMHA-POC on as a part of the agency further demonstrates PSI’s commitment to bringing anti-oppression to the center of their work.
To continue to broaden PSI’s ability to reach diverse and disenfranchised communities, our goal is to have a PSI coordinator of color in every state. The process of adding to the coordinator base may take time, but we believe that visibility and representation are important, and we are committed to diversifying PSI from within in order to better represent and connect with different communities. We hope that this process will enable more families in more communities to receive support around perinatal mood and anxiety disorders. Our intention is to increase access to support services and care, and we believe that diversifying from within is an active step towards that goal.
We will also continue to build our database of clinicians of color who have experience with perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, and we will draw upon the existing infrastructure within PSI to assist with this task.