Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior Margaret Howard, Ph.D., has joined the American Psychiatric Association (APA)'s Maternal Mental Health Advisory Panel. The twenty-member group, which includes representatives from the APA councils, a psychiatry fellow, and non-psychiatrist behavioral health providers, is charged with developing a needs assessment to gauge the attitudes and practices of mental health providers about pregnant patients with mental disorders.
"By convening a panel of experts in perinatal mental health, the American Psychiatric Association is demonstrating a commitment to addressing the dearth of research, clinical resources, and pharmacological training among psychiatrists who may care for pregnant women," says Howard, who leads RI MomsPRN, a psychiatry resource network for providers caring for pregnant and postpartum women in partnership with the Rhode Island Department of Health. "As the leading voice for psychiatry in this country, the APA can be added to the chorus of advocates, scientists, and clinicians intent on ensuring that all pregnant women are afforded the full range of psychiatric and psychological care."
A licensed clinical psychologist, Howard's primary clinical and research interests include perinatal mental health with a particular focus on postpartum mood and anxiety disorders, trauma, and treatment models that support the mother-baby dyad. She serves as the division director of the Center for Women’s Behavioral Health, director of the Day Hospital at Women and Infants Hospital, and associate program director for Brown Psychiatry's Women's Mental Health Fellowship.
"I am incredibly honored to have been selected to join this advisory panel and proud to represent Brown’s Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior and Women and Infants Hospital of Rhode Island, which have always been at the national forefront of perinatal mental health care," she says.
The advisory panel convenes on the heels of a CDC Foundation grant awarded to APA's division of research to study standard practices and barriers related to the mental health care of pregnant women with mental illness. Untreated perinatal mental illness is associated with high-risk pregnancy and a range of harmful outcomes. Despite the health risks posed by mental disorders during the perinatal period, pregnant women often do not receive adequate, or any, psychiatric treatment.