Rhode Island’s health department has been awarded a $3.25 million federal grant to improve mental health screenings for pregnant and postpartum women.
The five-year grant — $650,000 per year – was awarded in partnership with the Center for Women’s Behavioral Health at Women & Infants Hospital to improve screening and treatment of pregnant and postpartum women for mental health conditions, according to a joint statement from Women & Infants and the state Department of Health released Tuesday.
“Many people, including health care providers who treat pregnant and postpartum women, don’t realize how common mood disorders are and that they can affect any woman,’’ Margaret M. Howard, PhD, a division director of the Center for Women’s Behavioral Health, said in a statement. “While there are risk factors for developing postpartum depression, the postpartum period (up to one year after delivery) is the most vulnerable time in any woman’s life to come down with a mood or anxiety disorder. This is exactly why screening is so important.”
The goal of the grant is to improve the mental health and wellbeing of pregnant women and new mothers, which in turn will improve their infants’ social and emotional development.
The health department will use about half of the grant to fund the project at Women & Infants, Joseph Wendelken, a health department spokesman, said in an email. The remainder will fund related work such as clinical education for medical practices to improve screening, he said, and assessing screening rates at those practice.
Rhode Island’s health director, Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott, said the partnership will allow the state to “focus on critical risk factors, such as experiencing stressful life events, being a teen mom, and having a history of depression.’’
