Why People Just Like You are Giving to 2020 Mom This Holiday Season

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This year, like in years’ past, we accomplished a lot on a dime:

  • We had our biggest audience and most powerful speakers yet at the Maternal Mental Health FORUM, where cross-sector change agents convene to learn and get inspired

  • We supported moms in navigating complex insurance denials

  • We pivoted from holding a 3-day Mom Congress event to building an on-line membership platform for Mom Congress change-makers and going deep to lift up urgent child care policy needs given the COVID crisis

We can’t produce pathways for change like this without your support.

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Gaps in Maternal OCD Being Addressed Through New Partnership

Perinatal OCD is a relatively common maternal mental health condition, impacting up to 5% of those who are pregnant and postpartum; yet symptoms, like intrusive thoughts, often confuse patients and providers alike.

To bring this conversation to the forefront, 2020 Mom and the International OCD Foundation (IOCDF) formed a partnership and steering committee to more specifically identify gaps, and address them in maternal OCD research, awareness, and screening/treatment.

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What We're Reading

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Here 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.

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Today is World Mental Health Day. We are Fighting for Change in the U.S.

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We are grateful to all of those individuals and national and regional partner organizations who are providing direct service and frantically (now more than ever) trying to meet the need.

At 2020 Mom, our niche is focused on closing maternal mental health gaps in the U.S. health delivery system so moms (and others through the curb-cut effect) will have access to mental health care in the system families, employers, and society are already paying for.

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Suicidal, Twice – Without Warning (Psychosis – an Afterthought)

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We are grateful to be sharing Kristina Dulaney’s story during this year’s suicide awareness week. Kristina was one of the reasons 2020 Mom and our partners knew we had to launch an annual national maternal suicide awareness week campaign.

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Maternal Suicide: The US Should Measure What It Treasures

Background on General National Suicide Rates

Suicide is an urgent, complex public health crisis. More than 48,000 people died by suicide in the United States in 2018 (making it the 10th leading cause of death). Even more striking is that this rate has increased by one-third over the past 2 decades. Given the COVID pandemic and racial unrest, these rates are expected to rise first, before they come down.

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Governor Newsom: Continue to Be a Champion for Families and Mental Health – Sign AB 2360

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Dear California 2020 Mom Community,

The following letter was sent to the governor urging him to sign AB 2360, on Friday, September 4, 2020.

You can urge him to sign the bill too by sending your own request through the governor’s website. It takes two minutes. Learn more here.

Please Sign AB 2360, Telehealth: Mental Health Consultations, “The Mothers and Children Mental Health Support Act of 2020”

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What We're Reading

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This 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.

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CA Mothers and Children Mental Health Support Act of 2020 – Passed Another Hurdle

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California Assembly Bill 2360: Mothers and Children Mental Health Support Act of 2020, offers provider to provider psychiatry consultation and is one of few health care and telehealth bills that has proceeded through the legislative process. This week it passed through a significant hurdle, the senate appropriations process. Now it’s off to the senate floor for a vote.

Below is the latest letter submitted showing support from nearly 50 organizations including the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology and more.

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Organizations Urge Measurement of Pregnancy and Postpartum Depression Screening Rates in Medicaid Populations

This month, 2020 Mom submitted a group support letter from a coalition of over 60 organizations urging the Center For Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) to adopt the HEDIS “Core Set” Measures for Postpartum & Prenatal Depression Screening and Follow-Up. The need for HEDIS measures to be developed was first documented by 2020 Mom and partners through our report issued in 2017.

Read the letter submitted:

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Why “BIPOC” Replaced “Minority” this July

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July was first declared as National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month in 2008, but this year the mental health advocacy community began adopting a new empowering term “Black, Indigenous and People of Color.”

Mental Health America explains the change as follows:

“The continued use of “minority or marginalized” sets up BIPOC communities in terms of their quantity instead of their quality and removes their personhood…The word “minority” also emphasizes the power differential between “majority” and “minority” groups and can make BIPOC feel as though “minority” is synonymous with inferiority.

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What Joy is Reading this July

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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

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988 Designated as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline [fcc.gov]

The following media release was recently distributed by the Federal Communications Commission. This line was funded in part as a result of national nonprofit advocacy organizations like 2020 Mom.

FCC DESIGNATES ‘988’ AS 3-DIGIT NUMBER FOR NATIONAL SUICIDE PREVENTION HOTLINE

WASHINGTON, July 16, 2020—Today, the Federal Communications Commission adopted rules to establish 988 as the new, nationwide, 3-digit phone number for Americans in crisis to connect with suicide prevention and mental health crisis counselors.

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2021 Proposed Federal Budget Appropriations for Maternal and Mental Health

This week the U.S. House Labor, Health and Human Services and Education (LHHS) appropriations subcommittee released the Full Year 2021 LHHS bill. This is the first step of many for the Federal appropriations process. These proposed funding levels are subject to change as each chamber considers its respective appropriations bills over the next couple of months. However, this bill is an important indication of the House Committee’s priorities.

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