New Haven Mental health Outreach for MotherS (MOMS) Partnership: Developing public health infrastructure around women's mental health

Background: Women are 2 to 3 times more likely to suffer from depression than men. After exposure to a trauma, women are twice as likely as men to develop Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and PTSD is more chronic in women than men. Low-income, racially and ethnically diverse women of child-bearing age are the least likely to seek care and the most likely to be adversely affected by mental illness.

Methods: Formed in 2001, the New Haven MOMS Partnership is a community-academic partnership focused on developing public health infrastructure in the City of New Haven to address the mental health needs of low-income, racially and ethnically diverse, pregnant and parenting women. In 2009, a needs assessment using community mental health ambassadors trained in public health research methods was conducted using focus groups (n=10); key informant interviews (n=23), semi structured interviews (n=135) and surveys (n=356). We used a gender-based framework to analyze qualitative and quantitative data and a participatory approach to prioritizing areas for intervention.

Results: Gender-based analysis revealed the need to apply a life course model of women's heath to women's mental health, such that mental health needs and services for women were provided not solely in pregnancy or immediately postpartum. Community capacity and the capacity of the community-academic partnership pertaining to women's mental heath increased over time.

Conclusion: Our work indicates that community-academic partnerships to address maternal mental health are feasible and produce significant impact on the design and implementation of mental health interventions for women across the life course.