We have been piloting an e-screening tool for perinatal patients in Southeast Michigan. This service allows perinatal providers to offer their patients access to free, same-day access to behavioral health consultants that will provide case management, brief therapy, and care coordination. The behavioral health consultants meet weekly with a perinatal psychiatrist who is also able to provide treatment and medication recommendations to the referring provider.

As a part of this program, we have received 216 referrals and engaged 195 women. On average, women receive five brief therapy sessions. We have found that women in the program are experiencing a reduction in symptoms of depression and anxiety. Specifically, we see a change in mental health ratings from intake (baseline) to five months post enrollment; we found a significant drop in clinical level anxiety (i.e., above cut off on GAD-7 of 10) from 49% to 18%, respectively.

Additionally, we found a significant drop in clinical level depression on PHQ-9 (i.e., above cut off PHQ-9 of 10) from 41% to 10%, respectively.

Based on patient presenting symptoms, it is estimated that 83 ER visits were avoided, and 132 connections were made to community mental health and maternal infant health programs. These numbers demonstrate the continued need for mental health support of women during this period, and also the efficacy of a remote collaborative care model. We look forward to the opportunity to continue to build on this work and support more women in Southeast Michigan.

If you are a provider in Southeast Michigan interested in learning more about these newer services, please contact us at [email protected].