Filling gaps in services and care

Before I was a therapist, I was a public health person, and I entered the perinatal field by creating initiatives to fill gaps in support services. In 2014, I helped create a Community Health Center Pilot Program that was funded through the Massachusetts Department of Pubic Health and focused on integrating comprehensive perinatal support into existing systems of care. In 2015, I co-founded the Every Mother Project with three of my close friends and perinatal colleagues in order to support perinatal professionals in screening for and responding to perinatal emotional complications. In 2017, I co-founded the Perinatal Mental Health Alliance for People of Color (PMHA-POC) with Jabina Coleman and Desirée Israel,  two powerful forces in the perinatal field. Now a program within Postpartum Support International, PMHA-POC aims to build capacity within the perinatal mental health field in order to better support individuals, families, and communities of color during the perinatal period.

Jabina Coleman, me, and Desirée Israel at the Postpartum Support International Annual Conference in Portland in 2019