Search

Maternal depression is highly prevalent (10 to 20%) during the perinatal period with rates as high as 35 to 40% for Latinas. However, few Latinas are either identified or treated during the perinatal period. To address these disparities, the Perinatal Mental Health Model (PMH) was designed to ameliorate the barriers that prevent adequate diagnoses and intervention. The PMH is a culturally sensitive, short-term telemedicine, and collaborative care intervention for addressing depression among Mexican American mothers. It attends to sociocultural and socioeconomic dimensions and is delivered by trained mental health advisors within obstetric care settings. This article describes the feasibility and acceptability of utilizing the PMH. Participants (n=79) were selected from a first year ongoing randomized trial in community obstetric clinics. The intervention seems feasible and acceptable; low-income Latinas, identified as depressed during the perinatal period, reported having access to a range of appropriate community services and high satisfaction.

This study examines risk factors for substance involvement for youths involved with the child welfare (CW) system. In addition to common risk factors examined in general population studies; this research examines risk factors unique to youths in the CW system, including age at entry into CW and number of out-of-home placements. Participants included 214 youths ages 13 to 18, randomly sampled from youths active to CW in San Diego County, California. Severity of substance involvement was assessed through structured diagnostic interviews determining lifetime substance use, abuse, and dependence. Hierarchical regression analyses including demographics, psychosocial variables, maltreatment history, CW placement variables, and the interaction of age at entry into CW and number of out-of-home placements revealed that both common and CW-specific risk factors were associated with the severity of youth substance involvement. Multiple-placement changes, later entry into the CW system, and multiple-placement changes at an older age are associated with higher risk for more serious substance involvement for youths in CW.