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Preparing Your Clinic for Maternal Mental Health Screening

Preparing Your Clinic for Maternal Mental Health Screening 

The Policy Center for Maternal Mental Health has created the following guidance to ready Obstetric Provider Clinics for Maternal Mental Health Screening. Though these steps are intended for Obstetric providers, as the providers of maternity care, they can be applied to any setting.

Preparing for Screening 

The following steps should be taken to ready the office for screening:

  1. Staff conducting screening/assessment should be trained in maternal mental health through certificate-based training. Online and in-person training exist. This is because providers should be aware of a range of nuanced maternal mental health disorders, not just depression. It’s important to share this when screening and note that patients can talk openly about their symptoms and that expert support is available.
  1. Referral services should also be documented and evaluated by clinic staff (it is recommended this occur monthly) to ensure patients are provided with effective services in a timely manner. In addition to a traditional web search, and our menu of treatment options, resources can be obtained through the Postpartum Support International online provider directory.  The Marce Society of North America provides a listing of university-based maternal mental health programs. To the extent that resources are insufficient, consider contacting your hospital’s administration to request that they offer support groups led by CHWs or certified peers and an RN or LCSW, for example.
  1. Determine which screening tools your clinic will use. See this resource for a comprehensive list of the various screening tools and screening tool score cut-offs.
  1. Post Maternal Mental Health Posters. Order national Maternal Mental Health Hotline posters and palm cards, hang the posters in your clinic, and include palm cards in your restroom and provide them along with a list of local resources (see 2.)  for those who screen positive.  Sharing these resources can further help combat stigma and raise awareness about these disorders.