The Perinatal Collaborative Care Model

an obstetric clinician, a patient, and care manager chatting

What is perinatal mental health?

  • Perinatal mental health (PMH) refers to mental health conditions that occur during pregnancy or within the first year following the end of pregnancy. Good mental health can improve outcomes for the birthing person and the baby.
  • Everyone’s pregnancy journey is unique and each has their highs and lows. It is normal to experience a variety of different emotions during pregnancy. Some of the most common mental health conditions that pregnant persons experience include anxiety, depression, and postpartum psychosis.

What is the perinatal collaborative care model?

The Perinatal Collaborative Care Model (CCM) involves integrating mental health into the perinatal care setting to provide the best care possible for all patients experiencing perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs).

The perinatal collaborative care diagram depicts a care manger in the middle. There are three bidirectional arrows stemming from the care manager: one to an obstetric clinician, one to a pregnant patient, and one to a perinatal psychiatrist. There is also a bidirectional arrow connecting the obstetric clinician and the patient, representing mutual communication. There are also arrows connecting the obstetric clinician and patient to the psychiatrist who assists in modifying the patient’s treatment plan. In the top right corner, there is an image of a graph that represents the patient registry that the care manger utilizes to track patient’s symptoms. On the bottom right corner, there are icons of the obstetric provider, psychiatrist, and care manger labeled weekly team meeting. These three members participate in weekly team meetings to review the care manager’s caseload and patients needed adjustments to their treatment plans.
The perinatal collaborative care model

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The Perinatal CCM utilizes a care manager (usually a licensed mental health clinician) who serves as a liaison between the patient and the obstetric provider and who is able to create a care plan for the patient and provide short-term therapy.

At the core of the collaborative care model is a care manager – a licensed mental health clinician who works collaboratively with the patient to formulate a treatment plan

Additionally, the care manager uses a patient registry to follow up and track the patient's symptoms reported on behavioral health screening tools closely. This allows for an effective evaluation of patient symptoms to modify patient care as needed. Within this model, the care manager, obstetric provider, and a supervising psychiatrist will meet weekly to review patient referrals and discuss the patient care plans.

Core Principles of the Collaborative Care Model

The 5 core principles of the collaborative care model are:

Within this component of collaborative care, the team works together to focus on the patient and their specific healthcare needs.

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Population-based care uses a registry to focuson addressing the overall health of the population at the clinic level.

Throughout care, the patient’s progress is measured regularly and the treatment plan is actively modified until healthcare needs are met.

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Utilizes care approaches that have beendemonstrated to be effective.

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The collaborative care team is accountable for the quality of care that patients receive.