MOTHERS IN CRISIS
A proposed state law would improve access to mental health care for new moms.
NEARLY 16 years ago, the tragic deaths of the five children of Andrea and Rusty Yates helped create a new era in women’s mental health. For Houstonians, the Yates tragedy happened in our hometown, in our backyard, but it had a global impact. Today, we as a society recognize and more closely focus on maternal mental health and associated issues such as education, awareness, legislation, treatment and care of mothers affected with perinatal mental illnesses including postpartum depression (PPD), and the even more serious postpartum psychosis. While we are making strides in this area of women’s health, so much more still needs to be done. A mother’s mental health is critical to the physical, mental and emotional well-being of herself and her children.
Information and awareness are key. For the more than a decade and a half since this family’s loss, the Yates Children Memorial Fund (YCMF) for Women’s Mental Health Education at Mental Health America of Greater Houston and a core group of mental health and primary care professionals, organizations and individuals have been working to develop a generation of informed and empowered mothers and a community energized to change the landscape of women’s mental health.
Postpartum depression is the most common complication of childbirth. Research shows that a woman is at the highest risk in her lifetime of developing a new mental illness in the first year after
she gives birth. A 2016 report from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission and the Texas Department of State Health Services indicates roughly 17 percent of Texas mothers experience postpartum depression before or after giving birth.
But our state’s resources to help mothers in crisis are woefully inadequate. One proposal under consideration by the state Legislature, HB 2466 (and SB 1257 in the Senate) could boost those efforts.
The proposed legislation, jointly authored by state Reps. Sarah Davis, R-West University Place, Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston, Four Price R-Amarillo, John Zerwas, R-Richmond, and Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, would expand state-sponsored coverage for maternal depression screenings. Maternal depression is defined as depression of any severity with postpartum onset. It can be diagnosed at any point from four weeks to 12 months following delivery. At present, under Medicaid, new mothers only receive benefits for up to 60 days following childbirth. The too-brief window of coverage leaves many new mothers suffering from a postpartum mood disorder without access to the help they so desperately need.
Under HB 2466, a new mother must receive screening for maternal depression, regardless of her own health-coverage status, during a covered well-child visit at a pediatrician’s office. These screenings must occur during the first year of a child’s life, at the one-, two-, four- and sixmonth checkup visits. The House approved HB 2466 on May 6. State Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, has filed SB 1257 as a companion to HB 2466. The Senate must approve Huffman’s bill by May 24 for the bill to become law.
The potential impact cannot be overstated. Improved access to mental health services would address the serious impact that undiagnosed, untreated or undertreated maternal mental illnesses like postpartum depression can have on the safety and healthy development of our state’s mothers, children and families.
This bill is an important step for early detection. Early detection helps get mothers referred to treatment or support services potentially before a crisis situation, like the Yates family’s, occurs.
Mother’s Day may seem an odd time to address the issue of mental illness. But even as there is increased awareness, the subject is one that isn’t openly discussed enough. We’re more likely to hear about it when tragedy strikes. We hope our state’s lawmakers won’t let it come to that again. On Mother’s Day, moms in crisis likely would welcome a kind word, a display of affection such as a handmade card or even a simple hand-picked bouquet of wildflowers. But on this day and every day, what this fragile group of mothers most needs is access to mental health care. And what a better day than Mother’s Day to call attention to that?