Parental mental health screening in the NICU: a psychosocial team initiative.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: About 40-50% of parents with children admitted to Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU) experience clinically significant levels of depression, anxiety, and trauma. Poor parental mental health can negatively influence parent-child interactions and child development. Therefore, early identification of parents at-risk for clinical distress is of paramount importance. METHODS: To address this need, the psychosocial team, including psychology and psychiatry, at a large, level 4 Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) developed a quality-improvement initiative to assess the feasibility of screening parents and to determine rates of depression and trauma in the unit. RESULTS: About 40% of mothers and 20% of fathers were screened between 2 weeks of their child's hospitalization. About 40-45% of those parents endorsed clinically significant levels of depression and anxiety symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Recommendations for enhancing the feasibility and effectiveness of this process are discussed and considerations for future clinical and research endeavors are introduced.