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October 16, 2007

New Law on Perinatal Mental Health Disorders

Public Act 95-469 creates the Perinatal Mental Health Disorders Prevention and Treatment Act, effective January 1, 2008.  This memo explains the requirements for hospitals and other providers under the new law. Please forward this memo to the Director of Maternal and Child Health and the Director of Behavioral Health.

I. BACKGROUND. PA-95-469 (formerly SB15) addresses perinatal mental health disorders, commonly referred to as post-partum depression, to ensure that women suffering from the disorder are aware of the symptoms and the resources available for treatment. The purpose of the Act is to provide information to women and their families; develop procedures for assessing women for perinatal mental health disorders during prenatal and postnatal office visits; promote early detection and treatment, and when medically appropriate, avoid medication.

II. REQUIREMENTS FOR HOSPITALS. Effective January 1, 2008, hospitals that provide labor and delivery services must provide complete information about perinatal mental health disorders, including its symptoms, methods of coping with the illness, and treatment resources to new mothers prior to discharge following childbirth, and, if possible, to fathers and other family members as well.

The Department of Human Services (DHS) shall provide written information that hospitals may use to satisfy this requirement. DHS will provide the brochure, "Is It the Baby Blues or Something More?" that can be used to satisfy this requirement initially. The brochure can be downloaded from the DHS web site (click here).

• Scroll down to "Publications" toward the bottom of the page
• Locate "Postpartum Depression-Is It the Baby Blues or Something More?"
• Choose English or Spanish - (note this document is not in brochure form)
• Click on the link "Postpartum Depression (pdf) in top right of document. This will give the same information in a brochure format.

To have hard copy brochures shipped to you, call Valerie Jenkins at DHS at 217.524.3319 and be prepared to indicate the number of brochures needed in English and the number needed in Spanish.

Finally, hospitals may develop and use their own informational materials as long as they include the information outlined above.

Please note the following provisions apply only to office visits with licensed health care professionals. For purposes of the Act, a licensed health care professional is a physician, advanced practice nurse or a physician assistant. "Questionnaire" means an assessment tool administered by a licensed health care professional to detect perinatal mental health disorders such as the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, the Postpartum Depression Screening Scale, the Beck Depression Inventory, the Patient Health Questionnaire, or other validated assessment methods.

A. Pre-natal Office Visits. Licensed health care professionals providing prenatal care at a prenatal office visit shall provide education to women and if possible and with permission, to their families about perinatal mental health disorders in accordance with the formal opinions and recommendations of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). In addition, these professionals shall invite each pregnant patient to complete a questionnaire and shall review the completed questionnaire in accordance with the formal opinions and recommendations of ACOG. Assessment for perinatal mental health disorders must be repeated when, in the professional judgment of the licensed health care professional, a reasonable possibility exists that the woman suffers from perinatal mental health disorders.

B. Post-natal Office Visits. Similarly, licensed health care professionals providing postnatal office care to women shall also invite each patient to complete a questionnaire and review the completed questionnaire in accordance with ACOG formal opinions and recommendations.

C. Well-baby Check up Visits. Finally, licensed health care professionals providing pediatric care to an infant shall invite the infant's mother to complete a questionnaire at any well-baby check-up at which the mother is present prior to the infant's first birthday, and shall review the completed questionnaire in accordance with ACOG formal opinions and recommendations. In order to share results from an assessment with the mother's primary licensed health care professional, consent should be obtained from the mother in accordance with the Illinois Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. If the mother is determined to present an acute danger to herself or someone else, consent is not required.

Under this new Act, hospitals must provide certain information to mothers and if possible, to fathers and other family members about perinatal mental health disorders. Hospitals are not required to perform any screening or administer any questionnaire, although nothing in this Act prohibits hospitals from doing so. It is hoped that the provision of information by hospitals and the screenings performed at healthcare office visits will have a cumulative effect on the recognition, prevention and treatment of these disorders. The complete text of P.A. 95-469 is available by clicking here.

We hope this information is helpful. If you have questions, please contact Barb Haller at bhaller@ihastaff.org or 630.276.5474.