Suicide is a leading cause of maternal mortality although few systems for identifying and treating suicide risk are implemented in sites caring for women from low income and race/ethnic minority populations in pregnancy and the year postpartum.
We aim to add data abstraction related to suicide risk to an existing NIH project (R01 MH108548-01; PI Bennett) focused on implementing services for common mental disorders in this period in 10 community health centers nationally. This supplement will allow us to study in depth risk factors and care delivery factors associated with self-reported suicide risk and acts of self-harm among more than 5,000 women involved with the existing study. Interventions to enhance the capacity to identify, assess, and treat this condition will be identified by this work. Specifically, the supplement will support additional work over six months to complete two aims: 1) add suicide risk and self-harm diagnostic and treatment codes to existing ongoing data abstraction of perinatal mental health variables from the a shared electronic health record across these sites for patients involved with the existing funded project, and 2) add analysis of rates and associated risk factors for suicidal ideation and acts of self-harm as well as health service interventions utilized in the sites related to them.
Death by suicide is a leading cause of maternal mortality yet primary care settings that provide perinatal health care to vulnerable populations have not been the focus of health service interventions to detect and reduce risk for this outcome. We plan, over a six month study period, to expand the data collection and analyses of diagnostic and health services codes for more than 5,000 women who are part of an ongoing implementation trial to assess risk factors related to the delivery of care for suicide risk. This work will inform interventions to enhance the capacity of these sites to address this important cause of maternal mortality.
