By Rebecca Britt, MA Director of Research and Impact

In March, the Policy Center for Maternal Mental Health announced at the 2023 annual FORUM plans to unveil Maternal Mental Health State Report Cards this May.

The report cards are designed to catalyze states' efforts to:

Elevate maternal mental health gaps and opportunities to state policymakers
Support the advocacy efforts of nonprofit and community-based organizations
Allow for benchmarking against other states and,
Measure states’ progress annually

To develop the state report cards, the Policy Center identified available state- and county-level data sets and chose 12 indicators to assess state maternal mental health efforts within three categories:

Providers and Programs
Screening and Screening Reimbursement
Coverage and Treatment

States are awarded between 1-5 points for each of the 12 measures, and states with the most points are identified as “top performers” in an effort to address maternal mental health.

During the FORUM, data scientist Caitlin Murphy shared the report card measures and states which are emerging as front runners in addressing Maternal Mental Health.

To dive deeper into the measures and see a sneak peek of top performers, explore the slide deck here.

The full report card, including state grades, are scheduled to be released at a Congressional briefing this May during Maternal Mental Health Awareness month.