Closing Gaps in Maternal Mental Health
The Policy Center for Maternal Mental Health is a national think tank, nonprofit organization advancing policies that support a health care system that routinely detects and treats maternal mental health disorders for every mother, every time.
This month, what crossed our Executive Director, Joy’s desk was primarily research -including a staggering look at how COVID during pregnancy impacts mothers and their unborn children and a new report from the Partnership for Women and Families.
Read MoreHere 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.
Read MoreHere are the articles and reports that caught my eye in May and June. Highlights include two new reports - one by Rand making new policy recommendations to solve the mental health care delivery crisis, another from Well Being Trust, its annual report on deaths of despair. On a related note, a discussion on how the “pregnancy check box” on the death certificate has ‘conflated’ the U.S. maternal mortality rate. Additionally, new research suggests that screening for early breastfeeding struggles may help identify mothers who may be at risk for maternal mental health disorders. Finally, more articles below illustrate yet more heart-wrenching evidence surrounding maternal disparities among Black mothers.
Read MoreHere are the articles and research that caught my eye the last month and a half.
Though America is still suffering great levels of distress due to the pandemic, the articles below also highlight emerging solutions -including a statewide diaper bank, changes in telehealth access, the COVID Help app developed by the national center for PTSD, and more. There is also research highlighting better health care may be delivered by women and the reasons why this might be the case.
Read More2020 Mom does a monthly news round up, so you don’t have to. These are the articles that caught our attention these last 45 days. Which of these articles most intrigues you?
A set of simple measures known as psychological first aid or mental health first aid can enable people to help family, friends, and others in their communities who experience psychological distress...
Read MoreIn the last 30+ days, these are the articles and issues that caught my eye. I noticed a good dose of the hard to hear facts about mental health, and also articles about hope - how to solve for racism in health care, how telemedicine is finally getting its day (from payors, where the rubber meets the road), and hope for the Affordable Care Act. There is also an interesting new piece of research about circadian “misalignment” in shift workers, which could have interesting implications for mothers who may also be “misaligned” with circadian rhythms/sleep.
Read MoreHere are the articles that piqued my interest in September and October. Of note, the study highlighting an increase in pre-pandemic mental health disorders in the U.S. Also of note, is hopeful news, reduction in preterm birth globally, resources to help mental health care organizations become “Learning Organizations” and new Sage Therapeutics oral drug treatment progressing through clinical trials. Let me know what piece most resonated with you and why, by leaving a comment below.
Read MoreThis month the articles that caught my eye include:
Articles documenting research which confirms what we expected, increased risk of anxiety and depression due to COVID,
A new recommendation for screening for anxiety in teens and perinatal women and,
Announcement of a new NIH tool to identify which hospitals have the highest rates of preventable maternal complications, and more.
This month the following articles and research caught my eye, including:
A headline that the USPSTF has created a plan for PCPs to screen for social determinants of health;
How COVID is impacting mental health, compounded by increases in families reporting food insecurity and loss of health insurance and child care. Domestic violence is suspected to be on the rise too (we don’t have good data sadly to track this consistently in the U.S.) and new research is out on DV screening rates.
New research showing that though mental health apps are being developed at extremely fast rates, they are not being utilized widely.
Obstetric care and Adverse Childhood Experiences - a jarring personal overview of why this really matters
What I’m reading this month not surprisingly focuses on how the pandemic is affecting mood and also what we might be able to do about it. Interestingly, the Federal Agency AHRQ is also now more aggressively recommending a standardized depression screening/measurement approach to allow for more compatibility and quality improvement efforts. As a health systems quality improvement practitioner, I also believe this is critical and controversial.
Read MoreWhat a week it’s been!
Let me divert your attention just a bit from the news story of the day by sharing the non-COVID stories that recently caught my eye (ok I’m sharing one!).
Regarding the third article below, as a mom of a sleepless infant (and child), I can attest to the emotional troubles he has had (and are only getting worse now that he’s 12).
Read MoreHere are the news articles covering clinical topics that caught my eye in the last two months. Note the focus on gut health and nutrition and the connection to depression. If you have had experiences as a patient or treating provider with any of these treatments please post your story in the comments below.
SSRIs may activate vagus nerve-dependent gut-to-brain serotonin signaling. Read more here.
Read MoreHere are the articles that caught our founder Joy Burkhard’s eye in recent weeks. If you have had direct experience with the topic covered on any of these articles please share your insight by adding a comment below.
I was diagnosed with bipolar I disorder with psychotic features when I was 25 years old. My mental health journey unraveled my life to the point where I nearly died. An entire year, spanning most of 2005, drove me entirely out of reality. It remains extremely difficult to explain how something called “psychosis” has affected my brain.
Most people understand psychosis to be seeing, hearing and believing things that are not real. Simple. However, it is not easy to explain what being in psychosis feels like...
Read MoreBelow are the news articles that caught my eye this month. Use the comments feature below to share you thoughts with me.
Though the US Preventive Service Task Force has recommended depression screening in adults since 2009, fewer than half of all Americans ages 35 and older were screened for depression in 2015, according to the federal Agency for Health Care Research and Quality. Read it here.
Read MoreHere are my favorite articles since I last shared “What I’m Reading.” Note, I’m eager to get your thoughts on any of these articles, but particularly interested in your opinions about the three articles at the bottom; are you having problems with insurers? Let us know in the comments below.
New research published in June links anxiety and breastfeeding, a link moms have long been sharing concerns about. Read it here.
Read MoreSO, I just posted a “What We’re Reading” blog post a week ago, but I have more to share. Here are some of the highlights: More about the gut-biome brain connection, the latest article by our favorite journalist, April Dembosky. April calls out that America is lacking adequate inpatient treatment facilities for mothers and their babies, that reimbursement is an issue, and how lack of sleep is a public health emergency.
There had been no crime after all — Lisa Abramson’s destination that day wasn’t a jail cell, but rather the general psychiatric ward at Sutter Health’s California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. The other patients were there for drug overdoses or alcohol withdrawal. People were screaming. Read it here.
Read MoreOne of my favorite things to do is comb through articles that come across my desk (more like kitchen counter, where I work) from various sources. Here are the articles that I picked to share with you this month.
Wired: Virtual Reality’s Latest Use: Diagnosing Mental Illness?
Diagnosing psychiatric and neurological conditions is tricky. Physicians have long reported that diagnoses are fraught with complications and subtleties. Anywhere from 35 percent to 85 percent of mental health conditions go undetected and undiagnosed, according to the World Health Organization, depending on where you live on the planet. Needless to say, to treat depression, Alzheimer's, or autism, it must first be detected. Now clinicians and researchers are trying a new tool: virtual reality. Read it here.
Read MoreCBS News: 1 In 5 College Students So Stressed They Consider Suicide
College can be so stressful that many students think about killing themselves, and some even try, a new study suggests.
Among more than 67,000 students surveyed, over 20 percent said they . . .
Read MoreWe’re introducing a new type of blog post based on your requests - to share “Craveable Content” - a summary of what articles are catching our Founder and Executive Director Joy Burkhard’s eye.
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