Perinatal Behavioral Health Pathways Program

• Develop assessment and brief intervention skills with individuals at risk for or presenting with perinatal mood and anxiety disorders.
• Collaborate and liaison with a multidisciplinary team.
• Build knowledge in perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, perinatal substance use disorders, and risk factors for these conditions.
• Develop and coordinate treatment plans for patients as they prepare for discharge.

• Interns will learn CL skills for working with an acute multidisciplinary team with a focus on the perinatal population.
• Obtain competence in assessment and brief intervention approaches for perinatal mood and anxiety disorders.
• Engage in consultation and liaison services with the medical team, including providing feedback about patient care approaches and trauma-informed care practices.
• Provide psychoeducation about risk factors and symptoms of perinatal mood and anxiety disorders and resources available to patients and families after discharge.

• Behavioral health evaluation and treatment recommendations and care coordination.
• Collaboration and coordination of care with multidisciplinary team and other medical providers.
• Attend rounds and provide feedback as appropriate to care team to promote trauma-informed care.

 

Supervisor theoretical approaches include cognitive-behavioral, interpersonal therapy, and infant mental health orientations.

• Diagnostic interviewing.
• Brief individual psychotherapy.
• Care coordination.
• Quality and process improvement.
• Psychoeducation.
• Multidisciplinary collaboration.
• Consultation and Liaison.

Out of the 7,155 patients admitted to the mother-baby unit in 2020, 6,498 (90%) were from urban/suburban areas of Colorado, thus 10% were from rural/frontier regions and/or out of state. Additionally, 1,703 (24%) had a primarily language other than English, and 4,586 (64%) identified with a race/ethnicity other than white, non-Hispanic.

At least one hour of weekly supervision is provided to the intern for initial assessments, brief intervention, and consultation-liaison services. Service delivery typically involves a preceptor model in which the clinician is present to observe a portion of the session and discuss case conceptualization and recommendations in real time. We adopt developmental and reflective supervision approaches and work to align the training experiences with the trainee’s professional goals and training background/experiences. Interns will have the opportunity to attend weekly reflective supervision/peer consultation with the perinatal providers in the department of psychiatry. Interns begin by shadowing for orientation and then incrementally advance to a preceptor model.