Mental health matters: Client screenings for postpartum mood disorders available at MCHD
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MORGANTOWN - The Monongalia County Health Department's Women, Infants and Children program now offers client screenings for post-partum depressive and mood disorders.
MCHD WIC is dedicated to providing care in Monongalia, Marion, Harrison, Taylor, Doddridge and Preston counties, providing free nutrition, education and health screenings for pregnant, postpartum and breastfeeding mothers. Cami Haught, Monongalia County WIC agency director, said that her staff was inspired to take training in Perinatal Mood and Anxiety disorders last November to better support WIC's clients.
The training helps provide MCHD staff with education surrounding signs of postpartum mental health disorders using the Edinburgh postnatal depression screen, a 10-question exam.
Since then 14 of the 27 staff have completed the training, and four have passed the Perinatal Mood Disorders: Components of Care certification exam to officially refer at-risk patients to mental health professionals and discuss PMAD risk factors.
The training was made possible due to a $4,000 grant from the Women's Giving Circle of North Central West Virginia.
There have been many recent news outbreaks surrounding postpartum mood disorder awareness, such as Lindsay Clancy, a woman on trial for killing her three children, and the death of Hayden Panettiere, who suffered with addiction issues following childbirth.
Haught said that while these trending issues are putting more awareness on mothers' mental health, WIC has identified a need for more training long before these events.
"These court cases are going to amplify the information surrounding mood and anxiety disorders, and that's a double-edged sword," she said. "Depending on who you talk to, if they're very critical of mental health, you're probably not going to want to talk about it and open up if you are having concerns, whereas if you are around people who are more supportive of advancing care in the mental health area, you're going to be a little more open to it. I think the high profiles can either work in favor or against it; it really just depends on where you're at when these conversations occur."
Up to one in five mothers experience PMADS symptoms, and one in 10 fathers also have mental health disorders, according to Haught. She discussed the negative connotations around women's mental health and urged the community to practice mental health safety.
"We feel like sometimes mental health isn't as discussed as it should be, or some people feel there's a stigma surrounding that, and we want our participants to know, if you are struggling with one of these mood or anxiety disorders, that it's okay to talk about it, and it's okay to seek help," Haught said. "I think people view mental health as something that you can just fix yourself or bounce back from, or maybe you're just not strong enough to overcome it, but it’s a condition just like diabetes or heart disease."
Five hundred seventy-five women and 40 men have been screened by MCHD WIC staff as of mid-August. All mental health screenings courtesy of WIC are free.
Qualifying families can also utilize WIC's nutrition and breastfeeding education packages.
The clinic is located at 1311 Pineview Drive, White Birch Tower #2, Suite 400, in Morgantown. For more information, visit www.monchd.org/departments-programs/wic.