The Perinatal Mental Health Education and Screening Project: Our Progress to Date
The Perinatal Mental Health Education and Screening Project (the “Screening Project”) is a multi-year, multidisciplinary effort to ensure that all pregnant and postpartum people are educated about and screened for perinatal mental health (PMH) disorders and connected with resources for recovery.
The Screening Project launched in late 2021, and the project was laid out into two phases.
Phase I Goal: Identify When Health Care Providers Could Screen and Educate their Patients about Perinatal Mental Health
In Phase I of the Screening Project, we created a framework focused on WHEN health care providers could provide perinatal mental health education and screening to their patients. Phase I concluded in January 2023, and our findings were summarized in a report and webinar.
Phase II Goal: Remove Barriers to Screening and Education
In Phase II, we have four areas of work designed to address barriers to implementing the screening and education framework. They are:
Education: Ensuring frontline providers are educated about PMH disorders, including how to screen and connect those impacted with resources for recovery.
Resources: Identifying additional resources needed for those impacted by PMH disorders.
Reimbursement: Ensuring frontline providers are adequately and easily reimbursed for providing consultation, education, and screening for PMH disorders.
Screening Tools: Exploring opportunities to update and streamline screening tools.
We have made significant progress in learning about and addressing these barriers. Below we summarize our progress to date on each of the four areas of work.
Education for Health Care Providers
Conferences and events list. We curated a list of over 130 conferences and events scheduled in 2024 in the fields of maternal, child, and mental health, which we shared on our website and in several newsletters.
Event presentations. Members of our team have presented about perinatal mental health and the Screening Project at over 20 events and conferences, reaching hundreds of providers, advocates, and policymakers. In addition, we connected other experts in this field as speakers where appropriate.
Educational partnerships with membership organizations. We formed official educational partnerships with three membership organizations — the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses, DONA International, and the National Association of Perinatal Social Workers — whose members serve pregnant and postpartum people. Through these partnerships, we educated their members about perinatal mental health through a variety of mediums including: conference presentations, podcast recordings, webinars, and fact sheets.
Perinatal mental health training database. We launched the first-ever, publicly accessible, online database of perinatal mental health trainings for current and aspiring health, mental health, and maternal support professionals. The database includes over 180 trainings hosted by over 40 reputable individuals and organizations. Since its launch in July 2024, the database has garnered almost 8,000 views — demonstrating its demand in this field.
Providing Resources for those Impacted by Perinatal Mental Health Conditions
High-level resource guide for patients and providers. This guide will help health and maternal support professionals access or refer patients to existing perinatal mental health resources, including:
Components of postpartum wellness and recovery fact sheet. We are creating a fact sheet that outlines information about a range of components of postpartum wellness and recovery, including: paid family and medical leave, self-care, social and peer support, coaching and counseling, and medication, to name a few. The goal of this fact sheet is to help new parents understand how to recover from the physical, mental, and emotional challenges of pregnancy, labor, and delivery.
Insurance Reimbursement for Health Care Providers
We published a landscape analysis that summarizes key findings of over 30 meetings with frontline medical providers, perinatal mental health experts, and industry leaders in insurance billing and reimbursement. Here’s what we learned:
The billing and reimbursement landscape is incredibly complicated! There are many more moving parts in the reimbursement machinery than we imagined.
Several organizations are already leading work to address reimbursement, especially for obstetric providers.
We recognize that MMHLA may not be best suited to unilaterally generate reimbursement solutions.
We are best situated to monitor and support those leading efforts in this area.
Improving Screening Tools
Promoting the EPDS-US. We have been working to uplift and advertise the EPDS-US, which is an adaptation of the gold standard Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS). The EPDS-US modifies some of the language (but maintains the scoring and validity) of the EPDS to create an easier to understand, more relatable, and ultimately more culturally sensitive tool.
Supporting physician researchers. We have identified a team of scholars who are working to create an entirely new perinatal mental health screening tool that is more culturally sensitive and effective at recognizing the signs and symptoms of perinatal mental illness across diverse populations. We are supporting the team through regular check-ins, idea generation, and assisting with landscape analysis should this aspect of the project receive grant funding.
Our 2025 Goals for the Screening Project
Updating our Perinatal Mental Health Training Database. We will provide monthly updates and quarterly quality assurance reviews, advertise and promote the database, identify gaps in training topics, and develop strategies to fill those gaps.
Continuing to work with our educational partners. We will continue to work with the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses, DONA International, and the National Association of Perinatal Social Workers to provide educational activities and resources to their members.
Working to improve insurance reimbursement for pediatricians. We will take the lead on working with the American Academy of Pediatrics to ensure that new parents are screened at regular intervals throughout the entire first year postpartum.
Learn More and Work with Us
To learn more and work with us on the Screening Project, email our program manager, Aminat Balogun, at abalogun@mmhla.org.
