navigating parenthood and staying busy, you just your focus is on putting them first and making sure they have everything they need.

And especially when they're so young, you want to give them that leg up in the world of, what can I do to make sure they're prepared to the best of my ability?

And so sometimes I do forget to take care of the things that I need to do for myself.

Also.

we created the program listening to women and pregnant and postpartum people.

Really?

To improve effective screening and identification of mental health problems and getting people referred appropriately to treatment.

while that sounds seemingly like a very easy thing to do, we're really falling short of that in our country.

About only 1 in 8 women will get screened for depression.

And among those that actually need treatment, only about 1 in 4 will actually make it to treatment.

So the goal is really for people to feel comfortable reporting symptoms of mental health or substance use, or intimate partner violence or social determinants of health needs.

And we do that by just using simple text messaging, they would just send you a text message.

You click on a link and answer a good number of questions and just, you know, pretty simple.

I get that survey and I look and kind of see how the patient responded, what their needs are.

And then I reach out to them and help them get connected to whatever services might be helpful for them.

it was nice because you're at home or you're, you know, traveling or wherever, but there's no rush to it.

also it's private.

So there's no one looking over your shoulder.

as the patient is filling it out, it's a survey that they're doing on their own time, not in front of anybody.

So a lot of people are more honest in those moments.

we have done a lot of research to compare this text phone based screening system to what's done routinely, and care, which is in person, screening and referral to treatment.

And what we find is that when we use text in San, first of all, people are more likely to be screened like three times more likely to be screened than compared to clinical practice.

But there are a three times more likely to screen positive for these conditions in comparison to when they're asked face to face.

They're over four times more likely to get referred to treatment, and 5.7 times more likely to attend treatment in comparison to usual care.

I have a history of OCD.

And so it always picks it up whenever I do.

Like that questionnaire that checks for mental health.

And so it just was a little extra hyperactive with my pregnancy.

And so I was seeing the therapist for that.

And the fact that it was via telehealth was really nice because then you're not having to drive anywhere.

we live, in Earhart and pretty much to Columbia, Charleston or Savannah.

It would be an hour and a half to two hours, depending on the location that we're going to.

with my pregnancies and even post pregnancy now, telehealth has been a huge part of our life.

telehealth is really critical to all of these programs where we are referring people to treatment.

Because if people can receive treatment in their home via telehealth, they are much more likely to actually accept treatment.

They're much more likely to attend their visit as opposed to having to come into a clinic.

telehealth, makes it so that we can basically access anybody within the state of South Carolina.

they don't have to come to us.

We can go straight to them.

And it really just solves a lot of logistical barriers to care, but it also will solve some psychological barriers to care as well, where people just feel much more comfortable being in their home.

They know that they don't need to walk into a clinic and be identified as someone that has a mental health concern.

They can just be in their home and get the care that they need.

you just to get his car off first?

with pregnancy and postpartum, it is important to take care of yourself and look for resources to do that because just taking care of day to day living.

It's easy to miss early signs.

what I would love people to understand about, part of mental health conditions is that they're really common.

1 in 5 individuals were experienced less during pregnancy or the postpartum year.

do you And in addition to it being a leading cause of maternal mortality by suicide and drug overdose, there is an enormous morbidity that's associated with having these conditions.

So, if someone is experiencing one of these conditions during pregnancy, they often have an increased risk for things like preterm birth and low birth weight.

often have more unhealthy pregnancies.

They're at greater risk for postpartum difficulties with their mental health.

We see a lot of relational problems in the postpartum period.

And in the studies where we're able to really follow moms and babies over decades, and really assess the impact of untreated, depression or anxiety or other mental health conditions, we see that those, untreated conditions really impair, children's development.

there is something about that postpartum year that's really critical, for maternal health and bonding and child development.

we want people to understand the gravity of these conditions, and we want them to understand that there is help available and that treatments actually work.

People do get better.