A $1.75 million grant from the UPMC Health Plan is earmarked to help pregnant women and new mothers.

The five-year grant totals $1.75 million, coming from the Health Resources and Services Administration. UPMC’s project with the grant will be to develop a telehealth network to help improve behavioral health outcomes for these individuals.

Ranked 56th out of New York’s 62 counties in terms of healthy places to live, Chautauqua County residents experience higher than average rates of mental health and substance use conditions, behavioral health hospitalizations, perinatal depression, premature birth, and neonatal abstinence syndrome.

The county is also a HRSA-designated Mental Health Professional Shortage Area. The designation identifies geographic areas, facilities, or populations that have a shortage of health professionals. Untreated or undertreated behavioral health conditions pose significant risks to the maternal health, family well-being, and societal stability of perinatal individuals.

This project will address perinatal and behavioral health disparities by leveraging the robust perinatal tele-behavioral health and collaborative care infrastructure established by UPMC Magee-Womens Behavioral Health Services. Funding will be used to integrate and evaluate the effectiveness of telepsychiatry services and enhance collaboration with the existing health care infrastructure at three practice sites: UPMC Chautauqua Behavioral Health, UPMC Chautauqua Women’s and Maternity Care Center, and Jamestown Area Medical Associates–Great Lakes Physician Practice.

Jessica Meyers with the UPMC Center For HighValue Health Care said the proposal for the grant came about through collaboration in order to look to expand the work that they are doing in telehealth with perinatal patients in Pennsylvania and Chautauqua County. This collaboration includes working with Safe Harbour, UPMC Magee-Womens Behavioral Health Services and more.

Project Director Kristin Mayes said that the grant and project is important because of the need to improve perinatal behavioral health across the nation.

“Overall perinatal behavioral health is an area across the nation that could be improved,” Mayes said. “Things like screening rates could be improved. Chautauqua County does not have enough psychiatrists in place to help patients receive and implement treatment.”

The new telehealth system will also allow a place for patients to be referred to instead of ending up on a waiting list. Behavioral health, specifically mental health and substance abuse, is the main focus of this project, as behavioral health in perinatal patients can have long term effects on the individual, families, and children. Mayes said New York state has a long history of supporting these patients and that part of the project will also be to hire a patient coordinator to make sure no one slips through the cracks and everyone gets the treatment they need.

Meyers added to that, saying that the project will also allow for long term care.

“Obviously there is a lot of need,” Meyers said. “We want to set up a structure to provide support long term and have an infrastructure in the system to support the individual, families and children beyond the five years of the grant.”

Besides hiring a patient coordinator — whose job includes making sure all patients are on track, consulting with doctors for any treatment needed, working with outpatients and PCPs for a training plan once the individual goes home, and making case referral plans — the grant will also allow for evaluation from a quality improvement standpoint, care at outpatient sites, and translating this work to other places. Meyers said this work will be for those with mental health issues and substance abuse disorders too, not just those with postpartum depression.

Dr Cindy Chou, one of UPMC’s team of psychiatrists on this project, said people that take care of these patients are often the first line of interaction for them during this time period and they are working to help them comfort and take care of these patients by providing support. This project is something that has been seen to work across the nation, and Chou added that it will allow for easier access to care.

“It’s not always easy to access care, and we want to do anything we can to help streamline that and provide mental health support,” Chou said.

Mayes agreed, saying as a former mother of babies anything that can be done to help make that time easier sooner is important to do.

The work on this project for UPMC has already begun, with the hospital system establishing roles and hiring the project coordinator and beginning work on the evaluation plans and monitoring screening results. Research and other implementation of support with outpatient offices is being done to help make implementing the process as smooth as possible.

Meyers praised the work of all of the organizations involved, saying they could not do it without each other. Chou said they are very excited to begin this work.

“We are very passionate about this because we want people to know that every birthing individual matters,” Chou said. “Just because you are in a small town, you still should get the care that you need.”