PERSPECTIVE article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Perinatal Psychiatry
This article is part of the Research TopicWomen in Psychiatry 2025: Perinatal PsychiatryView all articles
A tool to address barriers in perinatal mental health screening, the PMH Connect: a perinatal mental health screening connection, education, and decision aid
Provisionally accepted
Sara Wagner Moyer1*
Jaclyn D Nunziato2Nicole W Karjane3Alexis I Rivera4Katherine L Wisner5Amy L Salisbury1Patricia A Kinser1- 1Virginia Commonwealth University School of Nursing, Richmond, United States
- 2Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Carilion School of Medicine, Roanoke, United States
- 3Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, Richmond, United States
- 4Bon Secours Mercy Health, Saint Francis Medical Center, Midlothian, VA, United States
- 5Developing Brain Institute, Children's National Hospital, Washington, United States
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Mental disturbances and related symptoms in the perinatal period present a challenge to patients and providers alike, particularly regarding identification and appropriate management. Perinatal Mental Health (PMH) screening occurs in clinical settings on a more regular basis thanks to guidelines recommending the use of validated screening measures used at perinatal visits. However, patients report several concerns when completing these screeners and providers report barriers in addressing the results. To address barriers and enhance the PMH screening experience, our team of clinicians and researchers propose a tool – the PMH Connect: a Perinatal Mental Health Screening Connection, Education, and Decision Aid – to be given to the patient at the same time as a PMH screener. The PMH Connect provides brief anticipatory guidance about PMH symptoms, normalizing trauma-informed language about prevalence, and provides a connection to resources in a supportive, unobtrusive manner. PMH Connect helps patients feel heard and supported and provides resources before patients need them, which decreases the burden on patients and providers alike. Inspired by the Cycle to Respectful Care framework, PMH Connect is designed to shift power to patients themselves, as valued experts on their own care team, by offering them connections to information and resources through this simple tool. Our hope is that PMH Connect will bridge many of the barriers to effective PMH screening, assessment, and treatment by improving patients' experiences and outcomes with the ultimate goal of optimizing screening effectiveness and care connection to improve maternal and infant health.
Keywords: Perinatal mental health, Mental health screening, Patient provider communication, shared clinical decision making, Patient information and communication
Received: 04 Sep 2025; Accepted: 27 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Moyer, Nunziato, Karjane, Rivera, Wisner, Salisbury and Kinser. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Sara Wagner Moyer, moyersw@vcu.edu
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