Mental Health Services For New Mothers Get Boost From Recently Signed Laws
Currently, less than 1 in 4 women with maternal depression receive treatment for the disorder, usually because they’re never screened for it. New legislation seeks to improve those statistics.
The California Health Report:
New Bills Boost Mental Health Access For Moms, Low-Income Kids
Children and new moms stand to gain improved access to mental health services under two bills recently signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown. The Maternal Mental Health bill requires doctors working with pregnant women and new moms to screen these patients for postpartum depression and other mental health conditions. Under the bill, signed by Gov. Brown on Sep. 30, health insurers must also develop treatment programs for maternal mental health issues and guidelines for obstetricians on what to do when a woman screens positive for a postpartum mood disorder. Kelly O’Connor Kay, interim executive director for the Los Angeles-based non-profit Maternal Mental Health Now, said the bill will help ensure more women get treated for postpartum depression. The second part of the bill requiring guidelines for obstetricians is especially important, she said, because it’s designed to make California’s law more effective than bills in some other states that only require screening. (Boyd-Barrett, 10/8)
In other mental health news —
The San Diego Union-Tribune:
Mental Health Forum Empowers Grieving Parents
On Saturday, Rózsa and Aaron Harris will be among some 600 audience members at the Forum for Healthy Minds at Cal State San Marcos. It will be the third year in a row that the San Marcos couple will attend the free, all-day conference in memory of their son, also named Aaron, who died by suicide in 2015 at the age of 21. The forum was launched 12 years ago by the Community Alliance for Healthy Minds to provide the community with support, education, resources and stigma-reducing strategies about treating mental illness and suicide prevention. (Kragen, 10/9)