What We're Reading
By Joy Burkhard, MBA
Founder and Executive Director, 2020 Mom
Some topics covered in the articles that I’m highlighting from last month include:
the growing and undeniable behavioral health crisis,
increased interest in the mental health tech space, and
at-home healthcare not being accessible for all.
Leave a comment below if any of these articles strike a chord with you.
Can Primary Care Physicians Address the Behavioral Health Crisis?
In a recent Senate Finance Committee hearing, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, MD, MBA, referred to what we as a nation face today: A growing and undeniable behavioral health crisis. A proven solution to remedy this is to better integrate behavioral health services into primary care settings and realign payment and delivery systems to help physicians meet the growing and diverse behavioral health needs of their patients.
The Effects of a Prenatal Mindfulness Intervention on Infant Autonomic and Behavioral Reactivity and Regulation
A new study found that infants whose mothers participated in a mindfulness-based program during pregnancy had healthier stress responses at six months old. This is the first known study to show that a prenatal social intervention may improve health outcomes in offspring, as measured by autonomic nervous system responses.
A Third of New Moms Had Postpartum Depression During Early COVID
One in three new people who had babies in the beginning of the pandemic experienced postpartum depression – potentially triple pre-pandemic levels – while one in five had major depressive symptoms, according to research led by the University of Michigan School of Nursing and Michigan Medicine.
Psychiatric Illness Increases Maternal Morbidity in Women With Opioid Use Disorder
Pregnant women with opioid use disorder who had a psychiatric diagnosis were more likely to experience adverse maternal outcomes than those without a diagnosis, researchers reported.
Gender Pay Gap Contributes to Increased Rates of Depression and Anxiety Among Women
A recent study from researchers at Columbia University (Platt, Prins, Bates, & Keyes, 2016) puts forth a possible new explanation for the higher rates of depression and anxiety seen in working women—and women in general—compared with rates in their male peers: the well-documented gender wage gap.
Only 22% of Black Patients Have a Healthcare Provider of the Same Race
Patients of color are significantly less likely to have healthcare providers of the same race compared with white patients, signaling a need to diversify the healthcare workforce to help promote equity and reduce disparities, according to a study published March 23 by the Urban Institute, a nonprofit economic and social policy research organization.
Negative Effects of Rural Hospital Closings Go Beyond Health
Closing rural hospitals does more than hurt patient care – Negative effects of rural hospital closings go beyond health, study finds.
Healthcare at Home Isn't Accessible for All
Many don't have the basic resources needed for home care. Care in the home has been touted as a panacea in healthcare as it's been shown to reduce costs, improve outcomes, and enhance the patient experience. From telehealth to virtual care and same-day delivery, the pandemic teleported our ability to deliver care in the home.
Physicians Eager to Help Address Patients’ Social Drivers of Health
A survey by The Physicians Foundation found that most U.S. physicians say social drivers of health such as food access, financial stability and transportation are important to improving community health and reducing costs, and they want to help address these issues.
Closer Look: Strong Evidence = Good Business for Mental Health Tech Startups
Interest in the mental health tech space is booming, as more stakeholders warm to the idea that software could be used to meet soaring demand for mental health treatment at a reasonable cost. So far, that evidence hasn’t been enough to convince health insurers and providers they should prescribe or pay for digital therapeutics.
Even Pregnant Women on SSRIs Suffer Lingering Anxiety, Depression
Despite treatment with antidepressant medication, a significant proportion of women still reported symptoms of anxiety and depression during pregnancy, according to a prospective study.
A Typology For Health Equity Measures
There is no national standard method for capturing data on key variables needed to assess health equity. Some organizations have developed guidelines for collection of race and ethnicity data, but they are not always consistent.
Medicaid Coverage Helped This Mississippi Mom Fight Postpartum Depression
House leaders killed a bill this week that would have ensured new moms could get Medicaid coverage for a year postpartum even after the federal public health emergency ends.
Black Families More Likely to Face Medical Debt
A report from the National Consumer Law Center found that 27.9% of Black families in the U.S. held medical debt, compared with 17.2% of white non-Hispanic families, and Black Americans who struggle with health care-related debt often delay, skip or avoid medical care. More than 6% of Black households had medical debts that totaled more than 20% of their annual income, compared with 4.4% of all households.
Opinion: How to Fix The Two-Tier U.S. Health Payment System
How the U.S. pays for health care is neither efficient nor fair. Despite spending an astounding 20% of its economic output on health care,, the U.S ranks poorly among high-income countries in national health system performance.
Mental Health and COVID-19: Early Evidence of the Pandemic’s Impact
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a severe impact on the mental health and well-being of people around the world. This scientific brief aims to present current evidence regarding the mental health aspects of the pandemic and inform prevention, response, and recovery efforts worldwide.
Pregnancy Delivers 'Catastrophic' Health Costs for Many New Parents
Low-income parents are more likely to spend at least 10% of household income on healthcare.
After Depression Screening Picks Up Patients Who Need Care, Timely Follow-Up Falls Short
In a routine check-up, primary care physician Lucinda Leung asks all the patients she sees about symptoms of depression. To her, it’s as important as measuring blood pressure or listening to a patient’s lungs.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Following Childbirth: Prevalence and Associated Factors
Traumatic experiences during or after childbirth are the subject of intense discussions in mainstream and social media and scientific literature. This evaluation aims to estimate the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder following childbirth in postpartum women and evaluate the influence of maternal, obstetrical and neonatal characteristics on the degree of PTSD symptoms measured by the Impact of Events Scale questionnaire.
Improving Communication and Teamwork During Labor: A Feasibility, Acceptability, and Safety Study
TeamBirth was designed to promote best practices in shared decision-making among care teams for people giving birth. Although leading health organizations recommend shared decision-making (SDM) to address gaps in quality of care, these recommendations are not consistently implemented in labor and delivery.