Sunday, Sep 26 - Expo Hall Opening
Sunday, Sep 26 - Job Fair
Monday,
Sep 27 - AWHONN's Block Party
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Title: "It Takes a Village to Mother the New Mother": Development of a Support Program to Address the Mental Health Needs of Women along the Continuum of Perinatal Care
Discipline: Women’s Health (WH), Professional Issues (PI), Newborn (NB), Childbearing (CB), Advanced Practice (AP)
Learning Objectives:
Submission Description:- Identify three methods to increase awareness of perinatal mood disorders in the community with a focus on new mothers, families, and health care professionals.
- Describe three obstetric and neonatal risks of untreated antenatal depression.
- Outline four valuable interventions that can be offered to at-risk patients by developing a perinatal mental health support program.
The unfortunate reality in our society is that it is okay to have a “medical” condition, but diagnoses of the mental health variety invite negative stigmatization. It’s okay to have a postpartum hemorrhage. But, your ability to parent may be questioned if you have postpartum depression (PPD). Attitudes and knowledge deficits regarding perinatal mental health requires education of not only the community, but the very healthcare providers that care for these women. Women suffering from PPD often need medication to treat the biology in the brain, talk therapy to discuss psychological struggles related to motherhood, and support from PPD support groups to have a safe place to share experiences with other mothers in similar situations.
AWHONN’s Position Statement, “The Role of the Nurse in Postpartum Mood and Anxiety Disorders” states: “Health care facilities that serve pregnant women, new mothers and newborns should have routine screening protocols and educational mechanisms for staff training and client education related to postpartum mood and anxiety disorders.” The development of the Postpartum Emotional Support Program at Elliot Hospital supports these initiatives. Our hospital-based perinatal mental health support program includes components of screening, referral, education, phone and group support, and a community-based taskforce.
Our PPD Support Group provides a safe, non-judgmental forum in which mothers may share their feelings of depression and anxiety, while benefiting from social support and learning about self-care practices to enhance their current therapy and treatment. The purpose of our multidisciplinary taskforce is to develop a coordinated structure across our health system for perinatal mental health. Some of our goals include assisting practice settings in establishing care pathways and protocols to guide practice, enhancing referral resources for reproductive mental health therapy, and collaborating with our psychiatric unit and emergency department on models of care for perinatal patients admitted for acute psychiatric illness.
Our organization has also implemented an Inpatient Postpartum Depression Risk Assessment Program to provide universal screening of all new mothers for risk factors that may predispose them to postpartum depression. An 11-item self-assessment questionnaire is distributed to EVERY new mother after birth. This screening tool identifies risk factors and does not indicate that a woman will definitely experience PPD. Moms “at-risk” view a PPD video, receive targeted PPD education, follow up phone calls at home, are offered VNA visits, and invited to attend the weekly PPD Support Group if needed.
When screening for depression in the health care setting is based on clinical observation alone, 50% of women suffering from depression are missed (Wilen and Mounts, 2006). We cannot rely solely on clinical judgment. Obstetric providers are encouraged to screen for depressive symptoms with a validated tool such as the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale during follow-up visits. If women become aware of the factors that can potentially make them vulnerable to PPD, they can mobilize their support network and make use of available resources. By screening universally, we hope to reduce the stigma of perinatal depression, by encouraging healthcare providers to talk about it as a common complication of childbirth.
AWHONN’s Position Statement, “The Role of the Nurse in Postpartum Mood and Anxiety Disorders” states: “Health care facilities that serve pregnant women, new mothers and newborns should have routine screening protocols and educational mechanisms for staff training and client education related to postpartum mood and anxiety disorders.” The development of the Postpartum Emotional Support Program at Elliot Hospital supports these initiatives. Our hospital-based perinatal mental health support program includes components of screening, referral, education, phone and group support, and a community-based taskforce.
Our PPD Support Group provides a safe, non-judgmental forum in which mothers may share their feelings of depression and anxiety, while benefiting from social support and learning about self-care practices to enhance their current therapy and treatment. The purpose of our multidisciplinary taskforce is to develop a coordinated structure across our health system for perinatal mental health. Some of our goals include assisting practice settings in establishing care pathways and protocols to guide practice, enhancing referral resources for reproductive mental health therapy, and collaborating with our psychiatric unit and emergency department on models of care for perinatal patients admitted for acute psychiatric illness.
Our organization has also implemented an Inpatient Postpartum Depression Risk Assessment Program to provide universal screening of all new mothers for risk factors that may predispose them to postpartum depression. An 11-item self-assessment questionnaire is distributed to EVERY new mother after birth. This screening tool identifies risk factors and does not indicate that a woman will definitely experience PPD. Moms “at-risk” view a PPD video, receive targeted PPD education, follow up phone calls at home, are offered VNA visits, and invited to attend the weekly PPD Support Group if needed.
When screening for depression in the health care setting is based on clinical observation alone, 50% of women suffering from depression are missed (Wilen and Mounts, 2006). We cannot rely solely on clinical judgment. Obstetric providers are encouraged to screen for depressive symptoms with a validated tool such as the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale during follow-up visits. If women become aware of the factors that can potentially make them vulnerable to PPD, they can mobilize their support network and make use of available resources. By screening universally, we hope to reduce the stigma of perinatal depression, by encouraging healthcare providers to talk about it as a common complication of childbirth.
