PSAP Digital Stories: Bringing Women's Experiences with Depression to Primary Care

The Preconceptional Screening and Assessment Project (PSAP) funded by the HRSA Maternal Child Health Bureau is a collaboration between the Boston Public Health Commission, Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Boston community health centers, designed to address the failure to identify and address women's behavioral risks in primary care. We developed a brief screening tool for depression, substance/alcohol use, and domestic violence for women of reproductive age in the preconception period, which was piloted at 2 community health centers. Over 1500 women were screened, with rates increasing of women at risk for depression from 12-24%, from 3-26% for substance/alcohol use and from 2-14% for domestic violence. Throughout the project both consumer and provider feedback has been critical for success. Focus groups with health center consumers held in English, Spanish, Portuguese and Vietnamese confirmed that women across cultures wanted their providers to screen for behavioral risks, providers consistently identify barriers to completing the screening. In order to address the divide between women's experiences with these behavioral risks and providers' understanding, and to successfully bring women's voices to the providers that are serving them, digital stories are being developed with women from the diverse cultures served by Boston CHCs. We will present one of the digital stories and discuss the empowerment women experienced in creating their stories for PCPs, the impact the integration of locally created and culturally diverse digital stories has had to provider response to screening, and the importance of strong community involvement and presence in provider education and program development.