Maternal Mental Health: What We Know and Where Do We Go From Here?

Maternal mental health has become an increasingly important public health issue as evidence has grown that maternal mental health has significant impacts on children’s physical, intellectual and emotional development. However, there remain significant research gaps in best practices for identifying women at risk and how to best intervene to improve outcomes for both mother and child. This program will identify the importance of treating maternal mental health, identify area of needed research and begin the discussion of where we as a society can begin to implement policy changes to improve outcomes for mothers and their children. 

Learning Objectives:

• Identify three risks of untreated maternal psychiatric illness to the exposed child.
• Name two long-term health outcomes associated with  exposure to “adverse childhood experiences.”
• Discuss two models of integrating mental health care into primary care settings.