A Web-Based Educational Intervention to Increase Perinatal Nurse and Pre-Licensure Student Knowledge and Self-Efficacy in Providing Postpartum Depression Care

Perinatal depression screening in community pharmacy: Exploring pharmacists' roles, training and resource needs using content analysis

BACKGROUND

Perinatal depression (PND) screening is often recommended in primary care settings, which includes the community pharmacy setting. However, there is limited research exploring pharmacists' perspectives on their roles in screening for perinatal mental illness.

AIM

This study aimed to explore pharmacists' views of pharmacists' roles in PND screening, as well as training and resource needs for PND screening in community pharmacy settings.

METHOD

A questionnaire including three open-ended questions focusing on pharmacists' perspectives of their role in PND screening, their training, and resource needs in this area, was disseminated to pharmacists across Australia via professional organisations and social media. Each open-ended question was separately analysed by inductive content analysis. Subcategories were deductively mapped to the Theoretical Framework of Acceptability.

RESULTS

Responses (N = 149) from the first open-ended question about pharmacists' roles in PND screening resulted in three categories (PND screening in primary care settings will support the community, community pharmacy environment, and system and policy changes) and ten subcategories. Responses to question two on training needs (n = 148) were categorised as: training content, training length, and training delivery while responses about resource needs (n = 147) fell into three categories: adapting community pharmacy operating structures, pharmacist-specific resources, and consumer-specific resources.

CONCLUSION

While some pharmacists were accepting of a role in PND screening due to pharmacists' accessibility and positive relationships with consumers, others had concerns regarding whether PND screening was within pharmacists' scope of practice. Further training and resources are needed to facilitate pharmacists' roles in PND screening, referral and care.

Mothers and Babies Online Course: Participant Characteristics and Behaviors in a Web-Based Prevention of Postpartum Depression Intervention

Despite the availability of evidence-based postpartum depression (PPD) prevention and treatment interventions, perinatal persons continue to suffer. eHealth and mHealth tools to address mental health issues have grown exponentially, especially given the ubiquity of technology and the increased demand for telemental health resources. The Mothers and Babies Online Course (eMB), an 8-lesson prevention of PPD intervention, was digitally adapted to expand the reach of evidence-based interventions to perinatal persons with limited access to maternal mental health resources. This report describes the characteristics, behaviors, and feedback provided by users of the updated eMB website. Two hundred eight predominantly English-speaking U.S. residents enrolled in the eMB. Thirty-seven percent were either pregnant (n = 38) or postpartum (n = 39) women interested in learning skills to manage changes in their mood during and after pregnancy; 63% were health providers (n = 131) interested in learning how to support their patient communities. Seventy-six percent (n = 159) viewed at least one of the eight eMB lessons, with 50.9% exclusively viewing Lesson 1. Few (4.4%) viewed all eight lessons. The lessons were rated favorably on usefulness and understanding. Perinatal women engaged with interactive content at higher rates than health providers. Examining user behaviors and feedback is an essential developmental step before empirically testing the efficacy of digital tools. Future iterations of the eMB will incorporate these preliminary findings to provide perinatal persons with accessible web-based interventions that will hopefully reduce the incidence and negative consequences of postpartum depression.