About the Perinatal Wellness Program at Weill Cornell Medicine
The Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology and of Psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medicine have joined efforts to create a unique clinical setting in which high-quality mental health care is provided to women in the obstetric setting. Under the leadership of Dr. Lauren M. Osborne, the Perinatal Wellness Program (PWP) has established a collaborative care model – a patient-centered approach to care that embeds behavioral health clinicians directly into obstetric care to provide evidence-based psychosocial or medication treatments.
The PWP conducts automated screening at three time points, and referred patients are evaluated individually by social workers trained in behavioral health care management. The entire team (including social workers, obstetricians, nurses, and a psychiatrist) meets regularly to determine appropriate levels of care, monitor symptoms, and create and adjust treatment plans. The result is the extension of perinatal psychiatric expertise to a large volume of patients who otherwise would not have access to this specialized treatment. Because the program is embedded in the obstetric setting, insurance coverage mirrors that of our OB-GYN department.
Pertinent facts about the PWP:
- Covers 8 prenatal clinics serving 8,600 birthing individuals annually
- Serves a population in which 30-40% of patients screen positive for depressive or anxiety symptoms
- Serves patients with both commercial and public insurance
- Enrolls referred patients on average within two weeks of referral
- Has treated 830 patients since program launch as a pilot in February 2023
- Includes 4 behavioral care managers, and obstetric clinician liaison for each clinic, and two psychiatric consultants
- Includes real-time data collection from the launch of the program, thus allowing us to evaluate effectiveness as well go
- Initial implementation data have already been presented in oral presentations and posters at 7 national and international conferences
- Initial effectiveness data show that the mean decrease in depression and anxiety scores by the time of discharge was both statistically and clinically significant.
- Includes a unique educational program, in which psychiatry residents, consult-liaison fellows, and maternal-fetal medicine fellows conduct some program intake evaluations, supervised by our consulting psychiatrist, and are educated in chart review and collaborative care consultation by attending our weekly meetings
- Includes unique digital support tools and group therapy among our treatment modalities
- Includes an in-house stepped care model, with a psychologist and nurse practitioner in the Department of Psychiatry ready to take on cases that need a higher level of care