Kate Biebel has been awarded a SPARC Seed Grant for her proposal entitled: What About Dads: An Exploratory Study Investigating Strategies to Support Men Experiencing or At-Risk of Paternal Perinatal Depression!
Date Posted: Wednesday, June 21, 2017
Health care providers do not regularly engage with men about mental health or fatherhood.While many men experience psychological distress during the perinatal period, depression is not screened for, diagnosed or treated regularly. Additionally, men are less likely to seek help for medical and mental health problems. Men do, however, accompany their partners to obstetric prenatal and pediatric well-child visits, suggesting an opportunity to engage with fathers who might otherwise fall through the cracks. While there is growing evidence about the importance of screening, educating and providing referrals around paternal depression in obstetric and pediatric settings, there is no research to date examining :
- What such an intervention would look like,
- How to develop strategies that can work within existing health care systems, and
- How men’s perspectives can be incorporated to address issues specific to mental health and fatherhood.
The goal of this study is to identify the perspectives of fathers and health care stakeholders about potential strategies to address paternal perinatal depression, which will lay the groundwork to ultimately develop a prototype intervention to address depression among perinatal men, in order to optimize child, maternal and paternal outcomes.
See also: Paternal Postpartum Depression, Journal of Parent & Family Mental Health
