What We’re Reading
By Joy Burkhard, MBA
Founder and Executive Director, 2020 Mom
Here are the articles and reports that caught my eye during the month of July. Highlights include stories and research findings that show postpartum depression on the rise, especially for women of color. On a related note, there’s a new drug that could help treat perinatal depression. Additionally, healthcare and life science organizations are looking to decrease operational costs, improve health data interoperability, and enable data-driven decision-making for clinicians to improve access to quality care. Finally, more articles below explore ways researchers are using health technology and innovation to monitor depression and anxiety in hopes to improve overall healthcare.
Engagement in Perinatal Depression Treatment: A Qualitative Study of Barriers Across and Within Racial/Ethnic Groups
Recent studies show, women from diverse backgrounds with perinatal depression encounter individual-level, social, and clinician-related barriers to treatment engagement, necessitating care strategies that reduce stigma, offer convenience, and attend to cultural and economic factors. The findings of this study suggest the importance of intervention and policy approaches affecting change at multiple levels to increase perinatal depression treatment engagement.
Introducing AWS [Amazon] for Health – Accelerating Innovation From Benchtop to Bedside
Healthcare and life science organizations are looking for ways to decrease operational costs, improve health data interoperability, and enable data-driven decision-making for clinicians to improve access to quality care.
Mental Illness is a Reality – So Why Does ‘Mental Health’ Get All the Attention?
Looking after our wellbeing is important, but an illness that is severe and needs treatment should not be minimized. ‘The problem is trying to distinguish between eroded mental health, which can be unpleasant and exhausting, and mental illness, which can be something else altogether.’
Not All Insurance Companies Cover Mental Health Services. The Carter Center Seeks Solutions Through Journalism.
The collaborative launched this year and they celebrate former First Lady Rosalynn Carter’s 50 years of mental health advocacy — they’re taking a solutions journalism approach to reporting on health insurance parity and the issues surrounding it through the lens of local newsrooms in key states.
Cognitive Functioning in Women 6 Years after Prenatal Depression
This research performed by the University of British Columbia and Children’s Hospital shows how prenatal depression has enduring effects on cognitive function six years postpartum.
Postpartum Depression on the Rise, Especially For Women of Color, During COVID-19 Pandemic
Mejía suffers from postpartum depression, a severe form of clinical depression related to pregnancy and childbirth. Symptoms include severe mood swings and deep despondency as well as impulses that can impel a mother to harm herself or her child.
The Foundations Of Collaborative Care
The Psychiatric Collaborative Care Model (CoCM), better known as "collaborative care," is much more than just a synonym for well-rounded care or holistic treatment. Simply co-locating a licensed behavioral health professional, such as a clinical social worker (LCSW) who may end up “collaborating” with their physician counterpart, is not the same as engaging in the evidence-based model known as collaborative care.
Managed Care Organizations Can Improve Health Equity By Partnering With Trusted Local Organizations
The Covid-19 pandemic has increasingly illuminated health disparities that exist in the United States, but it has also increased the community work that helps to find solutions to these issues. Partnerships between local community and faith-based organizations, public health officials, and managed care organizations have proven critical to addressing gaps in care in underserved communities.
A New Drug Could Help Treat Perinatal Depression
The new drug, Zuranolone, could alleviate the specific type of depression that results from the changes in hormones and stress levels due to pregnancy.
Childbearing Women More Likely to Experience Symptoms of Anxiety Than Depression
According to the latest “Listening to Mothers - California” Survey funded by the California Health Care Foundation, perinatal anxiety is what providers should really be paying attention to. The survey highlights other important gaps like the need for women to be screened during pregnancy, not just the postpartum period.
Physicians See Dramatic Increase in Postpartum Psychosis Cases During COVID-19 Pandemic
Postpartum psychosis is a serious, albeit rare illness, compared to the number of postpartum depression cases seen in the United States. The Women’s Mental Health Program at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) on average treats two cases of the illness a year. That’s why Jessica Coker, M.D., the medical director of the Psychiatric Research Institute’s women’s inpatient unit, became alarmed when she saw a growing number of cases during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Behavioral Health, Substance Use, Obesity Remain Factors For Pregnancy-Related Death
Sixty-eight Missouri women died while pregnant or within a year of pregnancy in 2018. Mental health conditions other than substance use disorder — occurred in 46 percent of pregnancy-related deaths that were injury-related.
New Survey Findings From the CDC and Archangels Reveal a Startling Picture of Caregiver Mental Health
A survey from the CDC and Archangels found that of 10,000 parents and caregivers observed, 32% experienced passive suicidal thoughts, and overall 70% reported adverse mental health symptoms.
How Researchers Are Using Health Tech to Monitor Depression
Researchers are exploring how health technology, like personalized machine learning and vocal tracking apps, could change the way we monitor and treat these mental health conditions.
World Health Organization Guidance on Community Mental Health Services
The World Health Organization, also known as WHO, recently released guidance on community mental health services: promoting person-centered and rights-based approaches is a set of publications that provides information and support to all stakeholders who wish to develop or transform their mental health system and services to align with international human rights standards including the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Plants May Buffer Stress
Vertical greenery ‘planted’ on the exterior of buildings may help buffer people against stress, a new study has found.
Prevalence and Magnitude of Potential Surprise Bills for Childbirth
In 2022, federal legislation will protect families from most surprise bills, which are defined as charges for out-of-network care at in-network facilities. To illustrate the potential benefits of this legislation, researchers estimated the frequency and magnitude of surprise bills for deliveries and newborn hospitalizations, which are the leading reasons for hospitalization in the U.S. Among privately insured families with in-network deliveries in 2019, almost one in five potentially received surprise bills for maternal and/or newborn care. For these families, estimated liability for potential surprise bills averaged $744, an amount larger than the estimated liability for colonoscopy but smaller than that for surgical care. For one-third of families that received potential surprise bills, the estimated liability exceeded $2000. It’s no surprise that Surprise bills were more frequent and larger when cesarean delivery or neonatal intensive care occurred.
FDA Cannot Ban Use of Electric Shock Devices for Harmful Behaviors
Last year, in a rare move, the FDA issued a final rule banning products known as electrical stimulation devices when used for the purpose of reducing or stopping self-injurious and aggressive behavior. Recently, a federal appeals court ruled in favor of the only facility in the U.S. still using devices for behavioral treatment.
Preconception Care as an Opportunity to Optimize Pregnancy Outcomes
Preconception care offers a unique opportunity to address the pressing public health goal of reducing pregnancy-related morbidity and mortality. According to a report from 2014, individualized preconception counseling well ahead of conception has been associated with improved maternal and neonatal outcomes and can inform personal decisions regarding pregnancy. For women who choose to defer pregnancy, preconception counseling offers an opportunity to provide contraceptive care.
Deciding on Home Birth
A recent study suggests that women who plan home births greatly value agency during perinatal care. The core category Claiming Maternal Space represented how participants solved the problem of decreased agency in conventional perinatal care.
SBIRT for Women with Alcohol and Drug Use During Pregnancy
Critical to the wellbeing of pregnant women and their infants is universal screening for drug and alcohol use. Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) has been shown to be a quick and effective means of identifying and intervening with patients whose patterns of use put them at risk for, or who already have substance-related health problems.
New Study Identifies Possible Neural Pathway for Studying Racism's Effect on Health
A new study of 55 Black women is helping to uncover a possible neural pathway that may explain the relationship racial discrimination and trauma has worsening health outcomes. Women with greater past racial trauma had more brain activity in the regions known for emotional regulation and fear inhibition. Those with greater trauma also made fewer errors when performing the study task, suggesting a heightened awareness of possible triggers and threats, which could be draining over time and play into how stress affects health, the authors warn.