Chapters Transcript Video MOMS IMPACTT MOMS IMPACTT provides real-time perinatal psychiatric consultation to health care providers as soon as I found out that I was pregnant, I was like I'm going to get healthy and I stopped drinking during drugs and started walking and just learning how to take care of my body. Both of my pregnancies ultimately slowed the progression of the disease down. But it didn't cure me. Like I thought I struggled immediately with a severe amount of O. C. D. And anxiety and I just thought that was me being a new mom. I had nothing to compare it to. I thought this was normal and then it got worse and worse to the point where it's pretty debilitating and then that turned into depression. Mental health and substance abuse problems are one of the most common issues that I deal with. Uh it's nearly at 20% of all the patients I see and putting that in context, hypertension, 10% diabetes, 5% preterm birth, 10%. So you can see the scope of the problem. It is not lost on any of us in obstetrics right now that maternal mortality is a significant issue nationwide. South Carolina notwithstanding. Um And chief among many of the reasons of these cases, we're reviewing our either mental health, substance abuse related overdoses, suicides, domestic violence homicides. But things that if identified, we probably had a real opportunity to change the outcome in a lot of these cases. And even in less significant, less severe cases, I think we have a really special opportunity and a real opportunity to change the outcome in the trajectory. Women are the centerpiece of the family unit and to have that person missing as a result of any reason for maternal mortality will have generational impact far beyond you know, the birth of their child. Mom's impact provides real time psychiatric consultation for any provider that's working with a pregnant or postpartum women to help them better identify and manage mental health or substance use problems for women in the state of south Carolina. What they can do is call this number and they'll be actually just supported in terms of how do you better identify these conditions? How do you treat these conditions? How do you help women with next steps um, in their overall treatment and recovery. So in addition to the real time psychiatric consultation were also able to help those women connect to any resources or treatment in the community. Were also able to provide trainings for that practice or that hospital system. Um, so that they're doing, they feel more equipped to better manage and treat women that are having mental health or substance use issues during pregnancy or the postpartum year personally with Mom's impact, I need this program. I recently almost daily, certainly weekly I see these patients who need help and I want to help them. And unfortunately there's a gap in resources and what I can offer that patient and what the community in what south Carolina can offer these patients and mom's impact is going to be a game changer. I think there's a large void in mental health services within our state. So I think the Moms Impact Program is rising to the occasion and filling a void in mental health and substance use disorder issues as they relate to pregnancy and will improve the outcomes for women and their pregnancies and their families across the state. Published Created by
