Closing Gaps in Maternal Mental Healthcare
The Policy Center for Maternal Mental Health is a national think tank, nonprofit organization advancing policies that support a health care system that routinely detects and treats maternal mental health disorders for every mother, every time.
This month, articles about specific risk factors during pregnancy, how using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to treat insomnia prevents depression, and the effects of Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are among those that I highlight below. Leave a comment below if any of these articles strike a chord with you.
Read MoreHere are the articles and reports that caught my eye during the month of July. Highlights include stories and research findings that show postpartum depression on the rise, especially for women of color. On a related note, there’s a new drug that could help treat perinatal depression. Additionally, healthcare and life science organizations are looking to decrease operational costs, improve health data interoperability, and enable data-driven decision-making for clinicians to improve access to quality care. Finally, more articles below explore ways researchers are using health technology and innovation to monitor depression and anxiety in hopes to improve overall healthcare.
Read MoreHave you ever wished that someone would monitor how often screening for maternal depression is happening and to report that rate?
It’s been a dream of mine to have such a measurement in place so we can gauge how quickly change is occurring, determine states where rates are highest/lowest, and push for more aggressive action until screening rates are in the acceptable 90% range nationally.
Now, development of such a measure, referred to as a Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (“HEDIS”) measure, is underway thanks to The California Health Care Foundation and the ZOMA Foundation.
In addition to a measure of screening, there is also a measure being developed to address whether the screening provider followed-up. Here are the proposed measures - which include assessment for screening/follow-up during both pregnancy and the postpartum period.
Read MoreWe had the opportunity to pull leaders in the field together to review the draft USPSTF recommendation. To learn what was discussed read more here.
It has now become more well known that maternal mental health disorders are the most common complication of pregnancy and childbirth.
In 2017, after the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) overturned its position to recommend screening for maternal depression, the United States Preventive Service Task Force (USPSTF) changed its position to now recommend maternal depression screening.
Now, in 2019, the USPSTF released one of the firsts of its kind, a recommendation for a clinical intervention to prevent a potential disorder, not just screen for it retrospectively. The disorder? Maternal depression. The recommendation was published in on the USPSTF website and in the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) Network.
SO, I just posted a “What We’re Reading” blog post a week ago, but I have more to share. Here are some of the highlights: More about the gut-biome brain connection, the latest article by our favorite journalist, April Dembosky. April calls out that America is lacking adequate inpatient treatment facilities for mothers and their babies, that reimbursement is an issue, and how lack of sleep is a public health emergency.
There had been no crime after all — Lisa Abramson’s destination that day wasn’t a jail cell, but rather the general psychiatric ward at Sutter Health’s California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. The other patients were there for drug overdoses or alcohol withdrawal. People were screaming. Read it here.
Read MoreOne of my favorite things to do is comb through articles that come across my desk (more like kitchen counter, where I work) from various sources. Here are the articles that I picked to share with you this month.
Wired: Virtual Reality’s Latest Use: Diagnosing Mental Illness?
Diagnosing psychiatric and neurological conditions is tricky. Physicians have long reported that diagnoses are fraught with complications and subtleties. Anywhere from 35 percent to 85 percent of mental health conditions go undetected and undiagnosed, according to the World Health Organization, depending on where you live on the planet. Needless to say, to treat depression, Alzheimer's, or autism, it must first be detected. Now clinicians and researchers are trying a new tool: virtual reality. Read it here.
Read MoreThis week, I head to Washington DC to meet with members of Congress about maternity care.
I will be joined by several colleagues from non-profit organizations, including leaders from groups like Every Mother Counts, The Preeclampsia Foundation, Improving Birth and March for Moms. With more women ever serving in congress, it’s a particularly exciting time to address women’s health and maternity issues.
We have been asked to share what we believe should be the highest priorities in improving maternity care. This includes maternal mental health.
If I were in position to write two federal laws, this is what I’d write.
Read MoreWow, 2018!
I'm pleased to share our 2018 Impact Report infographic and some of our 2018 highlights below.
If you have followed our work, you know our most celebrated accomplishment was our sponsorship and the passage of three pieces of key maternal mental health legislation. These bills made up the most comprehensive MMH legislative package ever.
We’ve had a few surreal moments in maternal mental health this fall, this one is definitely a moment that the maternal mental health community should be jumping up and down about.
In September the federal government’s Health and Human Services Agency (HRSA) announced it has awarded 4.5 million in grants to seven lucky states to address maternal mental health over five years (2018-2023).
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recently released a draft recommendation addressing screening women at risk in order to provide counseling as preventive care: Perinatal Depression: Preventive Interventions. You might recall
Read MoreToday, September 10 is International Suicide Awareness and Prevention Day, and it’s time to talk about maternal suicide including maternal suicide reporting in the U.S.
The United Kingdom last reported that suicide is its #1 cause of maternal mortality. Just three days ago, Japan announced the same.
Read MoreThis weekend something that has never happened in the maternal mental health happened:
a mother's story went viral on Facebook.
A mom in Sacramento California, went to her Ob/Gyn on Friday for help with postpartum depression with symptoms of anger and scary thoughts, and the next morning, Saturday, January 20, she posted this:
Read More2017 was our busiest year yet, we walked the fine line of balancing our passion to drive change and our real ability to do so with limited hours in the day.
Our most substantial achievements this year were release of the California Task Force for MMH white paper in May, building a community of Ambassadors, and launching the Innovation Awards.
Read MoreWe're often asked what statistic to use when describing prevalence of maternal mental health disorders. It's a great question because published statistics vary.
The most often cited stats are:
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