Resources for Identifying and Treating Women with Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders in Richfield, Utah

Objective:The purpose of this project was to increase screening rates, awareness, and provide resources about perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs) at the Central Utah Health Department in Richfield, Utah. Background:PMADs are a public health issue nationwide, yielding negative effects on women, children, families, and communities. It is estimated that 11 to 21 percent of pregnant and postpartum women in the United States experience symptoms of PMAD (Byrnes, 2018). PMADs include depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and postpartum psychosis. Methods:An education presentation was created using evidence from published literature and expert opinion of professional women's health providers. Content included PMADs risk factors, symptoms, the importance of screening, how to use the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), and resources for treating PMADs. Eleven public health Registered Nurses (RNs) participated in the training session. A follow-up email and handout highlighting important key points from the educational session was emailed to the eleven participants two weeks after the session. Pre- and post-surveys were used to evaluate the effectiveness of the educational session. Likert scale survey responses compared the degree of change in areas of comfort level, confidence, and knowledge on screening and awareness of PMADs.Results: All participant public health RNs (n=11) completed the 14-question pre-survey, only eight completed both the pre and the 20-question post-survey. To conduct a paired analysis, the results without a post-survey response were excluded and results were evaluated and paired using the Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test. The Mann Whitney U test was used on all the results, including the unpaired survey results and the sample was treated as an independent. No statistically significant results were found when pre and post-intervention surveys were compared. However, near significant results were found in three questions. Question 6 (p=0.07446) measured the knowledge level of PMADs and its adverse outcomes when untreated. Question 10 (p=0.08678) measured awareness of state and local resources for PMADs. Question 12 (p=0.08678) assessed how frequently the EPDS was used. Conclusion: An educational presentation and follow-up materials may have increased participant knowledge of PMADs and awareness of state and local resources, however further study and a larger sample size is necessary to determine this. The need to build on this and implement like programs is highly important, given the detrimental consequences of untreated PMADs.