Warm Connections: Integration of Infant Mental Health Services into WIC
Published In
Community Mental Health Journal
Document Type
Citation
Publication Date
11-7-2020
Abstract
Low-income women experience disproportionately high rates of adverse maternal mental health outcomes, such as pregnancy-related depression, and have less access to behavioral health support. Adverse maternal mental health affects children through compromising bonding, impeding early childhood development, and increasing risks of child maltreatment. Integrated behavioral health approaches can improve access to behavioral health services by locating services in community-based settings routinely accessed by low-income families. Warm Connections is an innovative integrated behavioral health program delivered in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) and rooted in an infant and early childhood mental health (IECMH) framework. This exploratory study describes Warm Connections and provides evaluation results from its pilot implementation. Findings suggest Warm Connections may reduce distress and increase parenting efficacy among low-income mothers and support further research of this program's feasibility.
Rights
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Locate the Document
DOI
10.1007/s10597-020-00744-y
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/34472
Citation Details
Klawetter, S., Glaze, K., Sward, A., & Frankel, K. A. (2020). Warm Connections: Integration of Infant Mental Health Services into WIC. Community Mental Health Journal. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-020-00744-y