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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Karalee Poschman, MPH, Megan V. Smith, MPH, Heather B. Howell, MSW, LCSW, and Kimberly A. Yonkers, MD. School of Medicine, Dept of Psychiatry, Yale University, 142 Temple St, Suite 301, New Haven, CT 06510, 203-764-6621, karalee.poschman@yale.edu

This presentation describes results from an intervention to improve the mental health of perinatal women in the New Haven Healthy Start Program. The Mental health Outreach for Mothers (MOMs) Hotline program targeted maternal depression through systematic education, screening, assessment, and treatment referral using an academic-community partnership model. Women enrolled in New Haven Healthy Start were screened for depression using the PHQ-9 by paraprofessional care coordinators. Depressed women were referred to the MOMS Hotline for assessment using the MINI International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI), provided with referrals for mental health treatment, and contacted 1, 3, and 6 months following their initial assessments to track treatment attendance, symptom severity, and barriers to care. Two cohorts of low-income women were screened for depression using the PHQ-9 and provided information on treatment attendance during the perinatal period to determine the effectiveness of the MOMs Hotline, 367 women before MOMs Hotline and 965 following implementation of the hotline. Rates of perinatal depression decreased from 22.6% to 17.6% (p = 0.035) with the implementation of MOMs Hotline. Similarly, Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) scores decreased from 6.1 to 4.4 (p <0.001). Perinatal treatment rates increased from 17.3% to 21.5% (p = 0.080). Results of predictive modeling and additional factors associated with the decrease in perinatal depression rate and increase in treatment rate will be discussed. Programs such as the MOMs Hotline that link psychiatric services with perinatal care, are effective in identifying women with psychiatric illness, increasing psychiatric referral and treatment, and decreasing maternal depressive symptoms.

Learning Objectives:

• Acquire ideas for intervention programs to improve identification of depressed pregnant and postpartum women
• Become familiar with techniques aimed at creating linkage systems between prenatal care and behavioral health providers.
• Gain knowledge on the prevalence of perinatal psychiatric disorders and determinants of metal health treatment attendance.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation