UIC PERINATAL MENTAL HEALTH PROJECT

Education/Training Opportunities

Click here for information on the Women’s Mental Health Fellowship

The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) Women’s Mental Health Program offers several trainings and workshops free of charge to Illinois perinatal health care providers. The project team offers “basic training” workshops for prenatal and primary health care providers on how to detect, diagnose and treat peripartum depression and anxiety disorders. The team also offers advanced skill-building workshops focusing on (1) screening and assessment; (2) psychopharmacologic treatment; (3) assessment and interventions for the mother-infant relationship. Advanced workshops targeted to mental health professionals are also available. For your convenience, workshops can be conducted on site in clinic settings. To request a workshop or training, please contact us at 1-800-573-6121 or click here to fill out a workshop request form. Listed below are each workshop’s title, outline and learning objectives:

Grand Rounds (approximately 1 hour in length)
Title: Grand Rounds: Peripartum Depression

1. Epidemiology
2. Diagnosis
3. Etiology
4. Effects of untreated peripartum depression
5. Screening
6. Treatment
7. Referral and support of primary healthcare providers that treat

Basic Workshop for Health Care Providers (approximately 2 hours in length)
Title: Perinatal Depression and Anxiety: Screening, Assessment and Treatment

Upon completion, participants should be able to:

• Identify screening tools for perinatal depression
• Understand diagnostic criteria for perinatal depression and anxiety disorders
• Cite resources for reliable sources of evidence-based information for treatment of perinatal depression and anxiety
• Recognize the risks of untreated antenatal depression and anxiety on outcomes for offspring

Workshop for Mental Health Providers (approximately 2 hours in length)
Title: Illinois Perinatal Mental Health Project: A Resource for Information

Upon completion, participants should be able to:

• Review Illinois resources for information on treatment of perinatal depression and anxiety disorders.
• Identify risks of untreated perinatal depression and anxiety on obstetric outcomes
• Recognize and understand FDA pregnancy categories for psychotropic medications.

Advanced Workshops (approximately 2 hours in length)
Screening and Assessment
Title: Perinatal Depression and Anxiety: Screening and Assessment

Upon completion, participants should be able to:

• Interpret scores of screening tools for perinatal depression
• Recognize the difference between postpartum blues and depression
• Diagnose perinatal depression and anxiety

Pharmacotherapy
Title: Medications for Perinatal Depression and Anxiety

Upon completion, participants should be able to:

• Weigh the relative risks of different medications for perinatal depression and anxiety
• Explain where to find up-to-date information on medications during pregnancy and breastfeeding
• Recognize and understand FDA pregnancy categories for psychotropic medications

Mother-Infant Relationships
Title: Perinatal Mood Disorders and the Mother-Infant Relationship

Upon completion, participants should be able to:

• Understand the risks of adverse effects of untreated depression and anxiety on the mother-infant relationship
• Identify a disturbed mother-infant relationship
• Review Illinois resources for intervention in the mother-infant relationship