The Ohio Department of Mental Health (ODMH) Maternal Depression Pilot Project was originally developed by Dr. Amy Heneghan at Case Western Reserve University in late 2004 and transferred in July 2006 to Dr. Frank Putnam at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital after Dr. Heneghan left Ohio for San Francisco.

The project consists of two main components: 1) a maternal depression awareness training for health professionals serving mothers and children; and 2) a pilot project to evaluate the feasibility of large scale screening for maternal depression by Help Me Grow workers in 7 pilot counties in Ohio.

To date the training component has reached over 250 professionals through a series of trainings held in Columbus, Dayton, Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Summit County for pediatricians and health care professionals. The pilot screening project began in February 2006 and is currently operating in 7 Ohio counties (Lucas, Lorain, Columbiana, Scioto, Muskingum, Cuyahoga, and Mahoning). It involves Help Me Grow workers administering the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale to mothers of infants between 4-8 weeks of age as part of their standard services. Mothers scoring in the clinical range (≥12) on the Edinburgh are referred to a county mental health department coordinator, who, in turn, arranges for further evaluation and treatment of the mother. Based on experience with this pilot, screening will be expanded to additional counties in the future.