MCH Alert


Maternal and Child Health Library

This and past issues of the MCH Alert are available at http://www.mchlibrary.info/alert/archives.html.


February 8, 2008

1. Brief Focuses on Maternal Depression as a Risk Factor Affecting Child Well-Being and School Readiness
2. Surgeon General Releases Report on Women's Mental Health
3. Report Summarizes Public Funding for Contraceptive and Related Services for Americans with Low Incomes
4. Journal Publishes Special Legal Issue on Laws and Policies Related to School Health Programs
5. Article Assesses Affects of Cueing on Health Professionals' Discussion of Intimate Partner Violence

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1. BRIEF FOCUSES ON MATERNAL DEPRESSION AS A RISK FACTOR AFFECTING CHILD WELL-BEING AND SCHOOL READINESS

Reducing Maternal Depression and Its Impact On Young Children: Toward a Responsive Early Childhood Policy Framework provides an overview of why it is important to address maternal depression as a central part of the effort to ensure that all young children enter school ready to succeed. The issue brief is jointly published by Project THRIVE and Pathways to Early School Success at the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP). Project THRIVE serves as a resource to the Maternal and Child Health Bureau-funded State Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems program. Pathways to Early School Success is NCCP's ongoing project to help policymakers, program administrators, and practitioners reduce barriers to achievement for young children from families with low incomes. The brief is based on a meeting to identify and promote solutions to emerging issues that impact young children's healthy development and school readiness. Topics include how depression affects parenting and child outcomes, particularly for young children; how often it occurs in combination with other parental risks, like post-traumatic stress disorders; and what kinds of strategies can prevent negative consequences for parents, for their parenting, and for their young children. State and federal policy responses, recommendations, and a conclusion are also presented. The brief is available at http://www.nccp.org/publications/pub_791.html.

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2. SURGEON GENERAL RELEASES REPORT ON WOMEN'S MENTAL HEALTH

The Surgeon General's Workshop on Women's Mental Health brought together experts from the consumer, academic, advocacy, health care delivery, health insurance, program planning, and policy planning communities to address critical mental health issues affecting girls and women and make recommendations for materials that could be produced by the Surgeon General to advance knowledge, understanding, and behaviors regarding women's mental health issues. The workshop report, recently published by the Office of the Surgeon General, summarizes the views and issues addressed by invited speakers and discussants at the workshop held on November 30 through December 1, 2005, in Denver, CO. Contents include an executive summary; an introduction to the background and purpose of the workshop; and information about the charge to the workshop, the Surgeon General's Women's Mental Health Project, and the state of women's mental health. The report also discusses topics of the workshop breakout groups and final sessions. Topics include biological and development factors; special mental disorders; trauma, violence, and abuse; social stress factors and stigma; identification and intervention issues; treatment access and insurance; health system issues; and protective and resilience factors. An overview of themes and recommendations, comments from the workshop participants, and closing remarks are also presented. The appendices include a conceptual framework for addressing the issues that affect the mental health of women and girls, a toolkit for consumers and families, a toolkit for professionals, and a participant list. The report is available at http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/topics/womensmentalhealth.

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3. REPORT SUMMARIZES PUBLIC FUNDING FOR CONTRACEPTIVE AND RELATED SERVICES FOR AMERICANS WITH LOW INCOMES

Public Funding for Family Planning, Sterilization and Abortion Services, FY 1980-2006 presents the results of a survey of FY 2006 public expenditures for family planning client services, family planning education and outreach activities, sterilization services, and abortion services. The report, published by the Guttmacher Institute, looks at expenditures nationally, for each state, and for each of the following funding sources: Title X of the Public Health Service Act, Medicaid, federal block grants (maternal and child health, social services, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families), and state appropriations. The authors compare FY 2006 data for family planning services with those from a series of prior surveys conducted between FY 1980 and FY 2001 and look at data on abortion utilization. Contents include an executive summary, an introduction, and a discussion of the methodology and key findings. Tables, figures, and a list of references are also provided. The report is available at http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/2008/01/28/or38.pdf.

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4. JOURNAL PUBLISHES SPECIAL LEGAL ISSUE ON LAWS AND POLICIES RELATED TO SCHOOL HEALTH PROGRAMS

A CDC Review of School Laws and Policies Concerning Child and Adolescent
Health, published in the February 2008 issue of the Journal of School Health, describes the breadth of health-related laws and policies under which schools operate. The report, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Division of Adolescent and School Health and Public Health Law Program, was prepared by the Centers for Law and the Public’s Health: A Collaborative at Johns Hopkins and Georgetown Universities. The report is framed around the eight interactive components of a coordinated school health program: health education, physical education, health services, nutrition services, mental health services and social services, healthy and safe school environment, health promotion for staff, and family and community involvement. The report is intended for use by education and public health officials in learning about laws and policies already in place and in gaining a better understanding of how they can use laws and policies to improve the health, safety, and academic performance of children and adolescents in schools. The report is available at http://www.ashaweb.org/pdfs/josh782.pdf.

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5. ARTICLE ASSESSES AFFECTS OF CUEING ON HEALTH PROFESSIONALS' DISCUSSION OF INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE

"This study identified potentially important differences in provider behaviors [related to discussing intimate partner violence (IPV) with pregnant women] as a result of cueing based upon pre-visit assessments," state the authors of an article published in the February 2008 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Between 4% and 20% of pregnant women experience IPV, and violence perpetrated against a pregnant woman increases her risk for preterm labor, chorioamniotitis, delivering a low-birthweight infant, and homicide. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends routine screening for violence during pregnancy; however, prenatal health professionals are frequently reluctant to screen for and counsel about violence. The study described in this article assessed the impact of health professional cueing on client-health professional discussions about IPV, compared with discussions about smoking.

Study participants included English-speaking women ages 18 or older who were less than 26 weeks pregnant and who were receiving care at one of five participating clinics in the San Francisco Bay area. The participants represented a convenience sample; they were the eligible pregnant women present in the clinics' waiting rooms at the times when research assistants were at that specific site. Women reporting one or more risks were assigned to intervention or control groups. The intervention included a summary cueing sheet for health professionals, all of whom received a brief orientation to the use of the cueing sheets.

The authors found that
The authors conclude that "risk assessment with provider cueing is a promising adjunct to prenatal providers' efforts to address IPV."

Calderon SH, Gilbert P, Jackson R, et al. 2008. Cueing prenatal providers: Effects on discussions of intimate partner violence. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 34(2)134-137. Abstract available at http://www.ajpm-online.net/article/S0749-3797(07)00649-6/abstract.

Readers: More information is available from the following MCH Library resources:

- Domestic Violence (knowledge path) at
http://www.mchlibrary.info/KnowledgePaths/kp_domviolence.html

- Preconception and Pregnancy (knowledge path) at
http://www.mchlibrary.info/KnowledgePaths/kp_pregnancy.html

- Prenatal Care (annotated bibliography) at
http://www.mchlibrary.info/action.lasso?-database=Biblio&-layout=Web&-response=/databases/BibLists/bib_prenatal.html&-MaxRecords=all&-DoScript=auto_search_prenatal&-search

- Smoking During Pregnancy (annotated bibliography) at
http://www.mchlibrary.info/action.lasso?-database=Biblio&-layout=Web&-response=/databases/BibLists/bib_smokingpreg.html&-MaxRecords=all&-DoScript=auto_search_smokingpreg&-search


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MCH Alert © 1998-2008 by National Center for Education in Maternal and Child Health and Georgetown University. MCH Alert is produced by Maternal and Child Health Library at the National Center for Education in Maternal and Child Health under its cooperative agreement (U02MC00001) with the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, Health Resources and Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Maternal and Child Health Bureau reserves a royalty-free, nonexclusive, and irrevocable right to use the work for federal purposes and to authorize others to use the work for federal purposes.
 
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