BACKGROUND: Perinatal depression (PD) screening has been defined for decades, but treatment remains ill-defined, with few mental health (MH) providers helping depressed women during this delicate time. The nurse practitioner (NP) is in a position to help women through PD with the use of a collaborative treatment model. AIMS: This DNP (doctor of nursing practice) inquiry investigated a stepped collaborative care model (CCM) to see whether the PD model improved time from referral to evaluation and decreased depression scores over a 6-month treatment period for women who came to an NP MH practice. METHOD: After obtaining approval from the institutional review board and the clients, the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale was administered to 37 women at psychiatric evaluation and subsequent MH visits over a 6-month period. Time from referral to evaluation and depression scores were analyzed. RESULTS: The CCM met the goal of 30 days from referral to evaluation. Prenatal clients had a statistically significant decrease in depression scores, and postpartum client scores were clinically significant. CONCLUSION: A CCM among care providers facilitates prompt intake to treatment time within 1 month of identification of depression, and a decrease in depression scores in women measured by sequential depression screen scores. The study may provide ideas for evidence-based NP practice by use of the model to treat depression in this group of women.
Keywords: collaborative care; perinatal/postpartum depression; stepped care.