Clinicians can improve suicide care for pregnant and postpartum patients

With suicide rates increasing in the United States, communities must use every tool available to identify those at risk so they can be connected to the care they need. Earlier this year, Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB) worked directly with the state’s health care providers to help increase suicide risk screening among pregnant and postpartum people, a particularly high-risk group . According to one study, 9% of women of childbearing age who died by suicide in the decade before 2019 were pregnant or recently postpartum.

The network of public television and radio stations launched a statewide mental health and suicide prevention public awareness campaign to promote access to resources to prevent suicide and treat suicidal thoughts and behaviors. This effort, supported by The Pew Charitable Trusts, included community engagement activities specifically focused on suicide risk among pregnant and postpartum people.

To directly target frontline practitioners, GPB has partnered with Mercer University School of Medicine’s Center for Rural Health and Health Disparities and the Georgia Rural Health Innovation Center to equip healthcare providers and future to recognize and address the risk of suicide in pregnant and postpartum women. population. At a workshop focused on perinatal mental health, medical students and a wide range of clinicians who regularly interact with pregnant and postpartum patients came together for specialized training on how to identify symptoms of distress mental health and suicidality, a wide range of signs of suicide risk. Participants discussed best practices for implementing prevention efforts, including evidence-based practices for risk screening and referral protocols for follow-up care.

“We are delighted with the participation rate and final product of our perinatal mental health training, which included a core component on identifying and assessing suicide risk in pregnant and postpartum women,” said Dr. Jennifer Barkin, executive director of the Center for Rural Health and Health Disparities.

“Including in-person and online participation, the workshop reached around 200 people, mainly health workers. All clinicians or clinicians-in-training in attendance were provided with detailed information on how to identify factors that increase suicide risk and how to help those who express thoughts of self-harm.

“Considering that these providers will affect the lives of many patients, we believe the impact will be impressive and difficult to quantify,” Barkin said. “This type of in-depth analysis of preventative strategies for mental well-being should be accessible to all clinicians. »

GPB also released a video series, featuring experts from across the state, promoting mental health and suicide prevention resources with content focused on mothers, teens and young adults. These videos were accompanied by articles written by health journalists on suicide prevention and maternal health.

Executives at the public broadcaster had seen a need for better support for the state’s pregnant and postpartum residents; Georgia has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the country. In fact, data from the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) shows that between 2018 and 2020, up to 19% of pregnancy-related deaths – deaths during pregnancy or within a year of pregnancy – were related to mental health problems. And he was determined that all of these events could be avoided. One contributing factor, according to the DPH study, was that providers were not using standardized assessment tools for postpartum depression and suicide.

“When we saw the data about the high maternal mortality rate in Georgia, we wanted to use our platform to do something,” said Emmalee Hackshaw, vice president of community engagement at GPB. “We can encourage more women to seek help and give help. people around them, especially health care providers, with the tools needed to offer this help. This is the aim of this campaign, and we are very happy with its success.

Georgia is not a unique case and this approach can be replicated elsewhere. Research shows that there is an urgent public health need across the United States to address the risk of suicide among pregnant and postpartum women. Data on 1,018 pregnancy-related deaths among residents of 36 states, including Georgia, found that 23% were due to mental health issues, including suicide and overdose. These conditions were the leading overall cause of pregnancy-related deaths.

Healthcare providers have a key role to play as people who may be considering suicide frequently connect with the healthcare system during prenatal, postpartum, and early pediatric appointments, providing ample opportunities for screening risks and intervention. There are proven screening tools and practices to successfully identify suicide risk, and providers must be trained to use them so this population can be connected to life-saving care.

Allison Corr works on the Pew Charitable Trusts Suicide Risk Reduction Project.

If you or someone you know needs help, please call or text Suicide and Crisis Lifeline on 988 or visit 988lifeline.org and click the chat button.