Building bridges

By Donna Keyser

Subjects: Community mental health centers, Pregnancy, Maternal Health Services, Mental health services, Community Mental Health Services, Complications, Allegheny County Maternal Depression Initiative (Pittsburgh, Pa.), Allegheny county (pa.), Therapy, Depressive Disorder, Pregnancy, complications, Organizational Case Studies, Pregnancy Complications, Mental Health Services, Mental illness in pregnancy, Public health, united states, Psychology, Community mental health services

Description: "Between January 2007 and June 2010, members of the Allegheny County Maternal and Child Health Care Collaborative designed, implemented, and evaluated the Allegheny County Maternal Depression Initiative, a local systems-change effort focused on increasing identification, referrals, and engagement in treatment as needed and appropriate for women at high risk for maternal depression. The collaborative was successful in improving key organizational and clinical processes related to the achievement of its aims. This report describes how and why the initiative was created, the processes through which it was implemented and evaluated, and the results and lessons learned. It concludes with recommendations in four areas for practice and policy change designed to expand and sustain the initiative's achievements: improve identification of maternal depression, enhance access to available resources and services, increase engagement in behavioral health treatment, and improve overall systems performance."--Publisher description.