Past Webinars & Briefings

The Congressional Briefing on Maternal Suicide, moderated by Benjamin Miller of the Policy Center for Maternal Mental Health, highlighted the urgent need for action due to its status as a leading cause of maternal mortality.

With rising suicide rates and significant mental health challenges faced by mothers, experts discussed the importance of screening, integrated healthcare, and community support to improve outcomes. Personal stories emphasized the lack of timely support, while calls for systemic changes and better training for healthcare providers were made to address these issues effectively. The Policy Center also re-released their update Maternal Suicide Issue Brief.

During this fireside chat, The Policy Center’s Executive Director Joy Burkhard and Michelle Lacy, Executive Director of Women’s Health Innovations of Arizona (WHI) discussed how and why WHI came to hire certified peer support specialists and how they have helped this clinical practice meet mothers where they are and support them while waiting for a therapist. Ms. Lacy also shared how the program seeks to support hospitals in providing certified peer support services.

Join the Policy Center for Maternal Mental Health leaders to discuss the latest trends in maternal suicide, as noted in the re-released issue brief titled Maternal Suicide in the U.S.

The briefing educated Congress and the general public on the following:

• The latest developments in family planning, including access to contraception
• The economic impact of mistimed/unintended pregnancy on women, families, and society
• Research on the impact of unintended pregnancy (and maternal mental health)
• An innovative product, Long Acting Reversible Contraception (LARC) for men
• Policy recommendations to improve access to family planning services

During this virtual briefing, members of Congress were briefed on the latest national maternal mental health statistics and federal maternal mental health policy and learned about the inaugural Maternal Mental Health state report cards released for the first time in May 2023. The briefing also featured a roadmap of the Policy Center’s top federal and state policy levers to improve maternal mental health outcomes.

Access to reproductive healthcare has been shown to impact rates of Maternal Mental Health Disorders (MMHDs). During this webinar, 2020 Mom discussed the release of its issue brief titled Access to Reproductive Healthcare and Maternal Mental Health and explored the brief’s key highlights with leaders in the field, this included:

• A general overview of reproductive healthcare
• Research on the relationships between maternal mental health and access to birth control, family planning counseling, and abortion
• The Biden-Harris Administration’s position on access to reproductive healthcare
• The key levers for change to increase access to reproductive healthcare to reduce the impact of MMHDs

By presenting the available research on these multifaceted relationships, 2020 Mom aims to provide a call to action for policymakers, advocates, and health insurers.

Join 2020 Mom and partners to learn about the latest developments in maternal mental health screening, including:

• Recommended screening tools, featured in 2020 Mom’s Universal Screening Issue Brief, including use of the PHQ-4 (a short screener to identify anxiety and depression) and when to screen for suicide risk, for example.
• To highlight the screening tools: Considerations for culturally relevant/sensitive screening tools
• The new National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) HEDIS screening measures and the first set of U.S. screening rates.
• Screening timeframe recommendations, including MMHLA’s partner advocacy organizations’ forthcoming recommendations.
• Actions being led by 2020 Mom to increase obstetric provider screening rates, including addressing obstetric provider reimbursement and care navigation efforts.

Maternal suicide is a leading cause of maternal mortality. With efforts made by the policy organization, 2020 Mom, and the CDC, the U.S. has made significant progress on tracking and reporting maternal suicide rates. However the work to identify maternal suicides is left to the states through reviews conducted in Maternal Mortality Review Committee (MMRC) settings. Additionally, state-based Perinatal Quality Collaboratives (PQCs) are generally charged with facilitating change based on MMRC findings.

This webinar covers:

• A general overview of maternal suicide statistics in the US
• Updated data from the CDC on Maternal Mortality Review Committees and pregnancy-related suicide deaths.
• How states are improving suicide detection in their MMRC process, including the role of informant interviews in identifying maternal suicide deaths, a process adopted by the Delaware MMRC and others
• 2020 Mom’s latest issue brief – suicide tracking and prevention
• Colorado’s latest report illustrates suicide is the top cause of maternal death, and efforts the PQC is championing
• Challenges and opportunities

Join us for a Fireside chat with Diana Clarke, PhD of the American Psychiatric Association (APA), and Tiffany Moore Simas, MD of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), discussing the APA’s new Maternal Mental Health (MMH) initiatives to close treatment gaps in MMH and highlighting ACOG/UMASS’s new MMH Toolkit.

We will unpack the APA’s initiatives which include:

• A needs assessment regarding the intersection of maternal substance use and mental health
• Updating and expanding existing psychiatric recommendations for the mental health care of pregnant women
• Creating educational & training recommendations for behavioral health clinicians

And the ACOG endorsed, Lifeline for Moms Perinatal Mental Health Tool Kit, which provides:

• Recommended Obstetric Provider Actions
• Screening algorithms

And “Clinical Pearls” to support detection, assessment, and treatment.

During this fireside chat, we will address what this means not only to providers, but to insurers/payers, government leaders, and patients.

Sponsored By:

In Partnership With:

Join our Executive Director, Joy Burkhard who will be speaking at this briefing that will examine the difference between perinatal health and perinatal mental health and their intrinsic relationship. Panelists will delve into factors contributing to perinatal health and mental health as well as policy levers and promising solutions available to stakeholders to reduce and prevent mental health symptoms and mood disorders. Attendees will learn about the existing policy levers and recent legislation, their promise, and tradeoffs in reducing mental health symptoms and harm among expecting parents.

Speakers:

• Joy Burkhard, MBA, Executive Director, 2020 Mom
• Veronica Gillispie-Bell, M.D., Senior Site Lead/Section Head, Women’s Services, Ochsner Kenner and Medical Director, Louisiana Perinatal Quality Collaborative and Pregnancy Associated Mortality Review
• Amy Hamberger, Corporate Director of Women’s Health Program, The AmeriHealth Caritas Family of Companies
• Kay Matthews, Founder, Shades of Blue
• Sarah J. Dash, MPH, President and CEO, Alliance for Health Policy (moderator)

Maternal suicide is a leading cause of maternal mortality. Despite common misconceptions, pregnancy and the postpartum period do not protect against the risk of psychiatric disorders or suicide. It has become increasingly urgent and important to normalize the discussion of maternal suicide to raise awareness and double-down on maternal suicide tracking and prevention efforts. In this webinar, we will cover:

• A general overview of maternal suicide research and data collection in the U.S.
• The difference between suicide risk and suicidal ideation, including racial disparities
• Maternal suicide risk factors
• Efforts to Standardize Review by Maternal Mortality Review Committees

Kara Zivin, PhD, MS, MA, MFA

Researcher and Peer with Lived Maternal Mental Health Experience
Lead Investigator, Trends in Suicidal Ideation and Self-Harm Among Privately Insured Delivering Women
Professor of Psychiatry, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Health Management and Policy/Public Health
University of Michigan
Faculty Associate, Survey Research Center
Institute for Social Research
Research Career Scientist, Center for Clinical Management Research (CCMR),
VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System

View the ASTHO-AMCHP national webinar to hear from subject matter experts, including our Executive Director, Joy Burkhard, on effective and innovative strategies for building the maternal behavioral health workforce. This webinar highlights best practices in behavioral health workforce recruitment and retention, discusses traditional and non-traditional funding sources for maternal behavioral health, and shares innovative models and programs that address maternal behavioral health.

CLASP, the Institute for Medicaid Innovation and 2020 Mom took a deep dive into how state Medicaid agencies and Managed Care Organizations can address Maternal Mental Health. The webinar featured a discussion of CLASP’s Advancing Equity in Maternal Mental Health Report and takeaways that can be applied by state agencies or health plans.

2020 Mom and our partner, Zero Suicide Institute, learned and discussed the national Zero Suicide framework, a system-wide, organizational commitment to safer suicide care in health and behavioral health care systems.
The framework is based on the realization that suicidal individuals often fall through the cracks in a sometimes fragmented and distracted health care system. A systematic approach to quality improvement in these settings is both available and necessary.
Inspired by health care systems that had seen dramatic reductions in patient suicide, the Zero Suicide began as a key concept of the 2012 National Strategy for Suicide Prevention and quickly became a priority of the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention (Action Alliance), and a project of Education Development Center’s Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC), supported by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
The U.S. health delivery system was already struggling to effectively address and prevent suicide, now with pandemic stressors expected to increase suicide rates, health systems can take action by adopting the Zero Suicide framework and tools.

Moderator:

Joy Burkhard, MBA
Executive Director, 2020 Mom

Panelists:

Julie Goldstein
Director, Zero Suicide Institute

Edwin Boudreaux, PhD

Professor, Departments of Emergency Medicine, Psychiatry, and Population and Quantitative Health Sciences
University of Massachusetts Medical School

Learn more about this and other Mom Congress events here.

In this webinar, we covered the latest on suicide prevention and facts about maternal suicide, including:

• A general overview of suicide and COVID related increases
• Maternal mental health statistics including maternal suicide
• General crisis prevention efforts
• Suicide prevention efforts

Catalyzing Mental Health Support For Moms Through Specialized Peer Support Training

Maternal mental health disorders impact up to 1 in 5 women, yet most never receive a diagnosis or treatment and support. Certified peer support provided by trained peer specialists is a proven model for addressing mental health conditions.

Listen to our discussion of the findings from a peer support pilot exploring whether existing and evidence-based mental health certified peer specialist training could be leveraged to support women with maternal mental health disorders.

In this webinar, we discuss why certified peer specialists supporting maternal mental health will provide a much needed new frontier in care, including:

• Augmenting maternal mental health provider shortages,
• Offering women support in a manner that meets them where they are,
• Providing clinics and health systems who bill Medicaid an opportunity to integrate mental health peer support
• Providing women who have recovered (or managing chronic depression and anxiety) and are eager to ‘give back,’ a career opportunity
• Give support to those at risk and to those who are already suffering.

Topic: Bridging the Gaps in Maternal Mental Health for Black Mothers

Sponsored By: 2020 Mom

Hosted By: Shades of Blue Project

Co-Hosted By: Black Mamas Matter Alliance, 2020 Mom, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, National Alliance on Mental Illness, and the American Psychological Association

Briefing Description: Statistics show that Black women in the U.S. are 3x – 5x as likely to die from a pregnancy-related causes than their white counterparts. Missing from the equation is how these same women experience a maternal mental health complication after their adverse maternal outcome. This briefing will explore the perspectives/experiences of Black women to reduce these adverse mental health outcomes.

During this webinar, Shiva Sethi of CLASP will provide an overview of and answer questions about his report, Advancing Racial Equity in Maternal Mental Health Policy. The report discusses racial inequities in maternal mental health, factors that have led to those inequities, and key strategies that policymakers can use to fight those inequities based on successes across the country. View report.

Presenter:
Alinne Barrera, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, Palo Alto University
2020 Mom Board Member

You can read more about Alinne’s work here.

The MB Model is based on a cognitive-behavioral framework and incorporates concepts from social learning theory, reality management training, attachment theory, and socio-cultural issues relevant to culturally diverse pregnant women. One of the primary goals is to teach women skills to manage changes in how they feel during and after pregnancy, and to build healthy relationships with their children. This model is recommended by the US Preventive Services Task Force as an example of a preventive intervention which should be covered by health insurers.

This training is best suited for mental health and service providers who work with perinatal women.

Webinar Overview: Many questions about the model are addressed in our recent webinar Overview of Mothers and Babies PPD Prevention Model.

Joy Burkhard, Executive Director of 2020 Mom, reviews the state of maternal mental health policy in the U.S. This includes an overview of state and federal policy (including the US Preventive Services Taskforce Positions) as well as the provider trade association positions on maternal mental health.

Learn about California’s comprehensive maternal mental health laws (including the screening mandate and insurer support law AB 2193 effective 7/1/19) and the tools available to help providers comply and patients to report concerns.

Please use the code CAMMH to receive your discount from our sponsor, www.MomsWell.org, a one-stop-shop for screening, referral, billing and integration with electronic medical records.

The program was designed as a 12 week face-to-face support group using a cognitive-behavioral framework, which can also be used as the basis for one-on-one counseling. The model is effective in treating and preventing maternal depression in high risk populations as referenced by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.

Reference:

https://www.amazon.com/Traumatic-Childbirth-Cheryl-Tatano-Beck/dp/0415678102/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1388292503&sr=8-1&keywords=traumatic+childbirth#customerReviews