Learning from Teen Parents to Improve Postpartum Depression Screening and Treatment

Emerging Leader Fellow Kali Hackett and her PolicyLab colleague Oluwademilade Adefarati have written a new blog post about lessons from interviewing adolescent parents navigating the behavioral health system.

Parents throughout the country are facing significant psychological stressors(link is external) that have only been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and these stressors can contribute to new or increased symptoms of mental health conditions. For parents, mental health conditions occurring in the period surrounding the birth of a child, known as Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders (PMAD), can be particularly challenging to cope with. Adolescents transitioning to parenthood are even more susceptible to these conditions, but they are often overlooked in the design of perinatal mental health services.

Through a Stoneleigh Emerging Leader Fellowship(link is external), our team at PolicyLab has devoted time and resources over the last two years to further explore how to support and address the specific mental health needs of parenting adolescents. We wanted to hear directly from young parents about their experiences navigating the behavioral health system and feelings after giving birth, so we spoke to several new parents in our community as part of our project.

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