A program developed at UMass Medical School to ensure that women with depression during or after pregnancy get the help they need is being replicated across the country, according to an NPR Morning Edition report on the Massachusetts Child Psychiatry Access Program for Moms (MCPAP for Moms).
Nancy Byatt, DO, MS, MBA, associate professor of psychiatry, obstetrics & gynecology, and population & quantitative health sciences, and director of the Division of Women’s Mental Health; and Tiffany A. Moore Simas, MD, MPH, professor of obstetrics & gynecology, pediatrics, psychiatry and population & quantitative health sciences, and vice chair of obstetrics & gynecology, explain how MCPAP for Moms has helped thousands of women in Massachusetts.
“Every time a woman is seen by an obstetrics provider it is an opportunity to detect depression, educate them about it and to really engage them in treatment,” Dr. Byatt, founding medical director of the program, said in the NPR report.
MCPAP for Moms helps physicians in obstetrics identify symptoms of depression in pregnant and new mothers and connect these mothers with the mental health care they need. Seven states have received funding through the 21st Century Cures Act to develop programs modeled on MCPAP for Moms. Washington and Wisconsin have similar programs.
Learn more in the full NPR report: ‘A Lifeline’ For Doctors Helps Them Treat Postpartum Depression.
