Outreach and Education
NC MATTERS provides in-person and virtual learning opportunities to help pregnancy care providers from various backgrounds learn about perinatal mood disorders and other behavioral health conditions that can become complications of the pregnancy and postpartum periods. Topics include screening and assessment, patient coping skills, mother-child attachment, communicating with perinatal patients about mood disorders and substance use, and more. Our perinatal mental health specialists include a team of psychiatrists, psychiatric nurse practitioners, and licensed clinical social workers who can work with your practice to develop a webinar or presentation that meets your specific learning goals.
Training and Technical Assistance
Many primary care and OB/GYN providers understand how mood disorders and substance use can impact their perinatal patients but are unsure how to consistently screen patients and route them to appropriate levels of care. Patients fall through the cracks as wait lists for specialized psychiatric care can be lengthy. Through a partnership with the Center of Excellence for Integrated Care, our team of specialists can work with your clinic to select appropriate screening measures, develop a protocol for collecting and tracking patient responses, and create a series of algorithms to help you feel more confident and competent in supporting your patients’ mental health needs.
Psychiatric Consultation and Assessments
The engine of NC MATTERS is our psychiatric access line (NC-PAL), available Monday-Friday, 8 am-5 pm, to provide one-on-one, case-specific consultations for providers with questions about patient care. The line is staffed full-time by a licensed clinical social worker and a perinatal psychiatric specialist. They can field patient-specific questions about diagnostic clarity, medication management, and care planning. Patients with a more complex psychiatric history or current needs can receive a one-time psychiatric assessment via telehealth to provide a more in-depth consultation.
Resource and Referral Support
Ninety of North Carolina's 100 counties are designated Mental Health Professional Shortage Areas by the NC Office of Rural Health. We maintain a database of perinatal mental health care providers across the state. We can support providers in directing their patients to appropriate and desired care, including therapy, support groups, medication management, substance use treatment, and postpartum support services. This database can be accessed by calling NC-PAL or by visiting our website: ncmatters.org
Contact Us
For more information, please get in touch with us or check out our website.
