Maternal and Child Behavioral Health Pilot Project

This family-centered program has implemented a variety of mental health screening and treatment integration strategies into eight King County safety net clinics. The pilot project aims to improve access to depression screening and treatment among the target population, implement standardized treatment protocols in primary care settings in order to improve mental health status, and improve the capacity of primary care settings to prevent and treat mental health issues for at-risk mothers and their children.

In order to identify at-risk mothers, clinics that participated in the pilot used various screening protocols with pregnant women during their pre-natal visits and with mothers during their children's visits to the clinic for acute illnesses or well-child appointments.

The goal of the Maternal and Child Behavioral Health Pilot Project is to prevent and treat common mental health disorders in low-income pregnant women, mothers, and their children.

In its first 11 months, this program screened nearly 3,000 pregnant and parenting women for depression and mood disorders. Also during this time, nearly 2,000 children between the ages of 0-12 were screened for red flags in their development and 77 of these children were identified as being at risk of behavioral and/or developmental issues. Four hundred ten women and 42 children received mental health services. Of the women with enough data to track, over half showed improvements in depression and anxiety.