What We’re Reading
By Joy Burkhard, MBA
Founder and Executive Director, 2020 Mom
This month, what crossed our Executive Director, Joy’s desk was primarily research -including a staggering look at how COVID during pregnancy impacts mothers and their unborn children and a new report from the Partnership for Women and Families.
Devastating Impact of COVID on Pregnancy & Birth Outcomes
Pregnant women infected with the coronavirus are at significantly higher risk for adverse complications, including preterm birth, according to a University of California San Francisco analysis of all documented deliveries in the state between July 2020 and January 2021.
First Peer-run Respite Opens As Alternative to Hospitalization For People in Mental Health Distress
A mental health agency in Charlotte, NC, run by people with lived experience, opens North Carolina’s first peer-run respite center as an alternative to landing in the emergency room for mental health issues.
No Worse Outcomes Seen for Kids Exposed to Prenatal Antipsychotics
A new study shows no higher risk for ADHD, autism, or small for gestational age. Use of antipsychotics during pregnancy did not seem to have a significant developmental impact on babies, according to a population-based study.
What Medicare Can Teach Medicaid About Value-Based Care
Putting the Care Back in Medicaid
Health care payments should reward the value of services delivered over volume. Private insurance companies and public payers are working to provide better incentives to move toward value for health care practices and clinicians across all lines of business. Medicare and Medicaid are the most extensive publicly funded programs in this country, covering 62.8 million and 76.5 million people in the US, respectively.1 It is clear that Medicare is more adaptable to value-based models than is Medicaid.
Many Americans Are Reaching Out For Mental Health Support — But Can't Get It
Even for people with Medicaid or private health insurance, getting access to therapy and other kinds of mental health support remains complicated, hard to navigate, and expensive.
Air Pollution Linked to More Severe Mental Illness – Study
Recent research has shown that small increases in air pollution are linked to significant rises in depression and anxiety. It has also linked dirty air to increased suicides and indicated that growing up in polluted places increases mental disorders.
Acne Takes a Toll on Women's Mental Health, Quality of Life
A small survey showed that almost half of women with moderate or severe acne had appearance-related concerns that affected their social, professional, and personal lives, including behavior-altering effects.
New Mothers’ Sleep Loss Linked to Accelerated Aging
Too little sleep in the first six months after birth can add three to seven years to women’s ‘biological age,’ UCLA scientists report.
New Research Highlights How Postpartum Depression Impacts Mothers and Fathers
New dad Stephen Hasson's son Max was born very prematurely. He was in the NICU for 97 days. Pandemic increases the risk of postpartum stress. Northwestern University researchers screened parents during their newborns’ stay in neonatal ICUs and up to a month after discharge. Of the parents screened, 33% of mothers and 17% of fathers had depression symptoms. While mothers improved once their babies were home, dads were still experiencing symptoms.
Mental Health Clinics Angle for Spot in Biden Budget Bill
The Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) program is being primed for a major expansion as the COVID-19 pandemic deepens struggles with drug use, depression and anxiety for many Americans.
Maternal Mental Health Inequities Disproportionately Burden People of Color and Those with Low Incomes
Birthing Black, Indigenous, and other people of color, and those with low incomes bear a heavier burden of MMH conditions. Intersecting structures of disadvantage, grounded in racism, have systematically denied communities of color resources that would prevent, mitigate, and treat MMH conditions.