Postpartum Mental Health Promotion: Perspectives from Mothers and Home Visitors.

OBJECTIVE: The object of this study was to examine the implementation of the Towards Flourishing Mental Health Promotion Strategy, a demonstration project designed to promote the mental well-being of parents and their children that was added to an existing public health home visiting program. DESIGN AND SAMPLE: Structured interviews were conducted with program stakeholders including 13 women receiving home visiting services in the postpartum period and 6 home visitors. MEASURES: Thematic analysis of individual transcripts was conducted and results were compiled according to common themes. RESULTS: The results indicate that women and home visitors perceived the integration of a mental health promotion strategy into an existing public health program as feasible, acceptable and useful. The strategy provides a mechanism for women and home visitors to dialog about mental health and appears to have early positive impacts on the women. Factors that facilitated and impeded the successful implementation of the strategy are described. CONCLUSION: These results point to promising strategies to reach women early in the postpartum period to support their mental health. They also shed light on the barriers to supporting mental health, indicating the need to address stigma related to mental health and the social determinants of health.

Does continuity of care with a family physician reduce hospitalizations among older adults?

OBJECTIVE: To examine the relation between continuity of primary care and hospitalizations. METHODS: Survey data from a representative sample of older adults aged 67 or over living in the province of Manitoba (n = 1863) were linked to administrative data, which provide complete records of physician visits and hospitalizations. A visit-based measure of continuity of care was derived using a majority-of-care definition, whereby individuals who made 75% of all their visits to family physicians (FPs) to the same FP were classified as having high continuity of care, and those with less than 75% of their visits to the same FP as having low continuity of care. Whether individuals were hospitalized (for either ambulatory care-sensitive conditions or all conditions) was also determined from administrative records. RESULTS: High continuity of care was associated with reduced odds of ambulatory care-sensitive hospitalizations (adjusted odds ratio = 0.67, confidence interval 0.51-0.90) controlling for demographic and self-reported, health-related measures. It was not related to hospitalizations for all conditions, however. CONCLUSIONS: The study highlights the importance of continuity of primary care in reducing potentially avoidable hospitalizations.

Does continuity of care matter in a universally insured population?

OBJECTIVE: To examine the relation between continuity of care and preventive health care and emergency department (ED) use in a universal health care system. DATA SOURCES/STUDY SETTING: Administrative data that capture health care use of the entire population of a midwestern Canadian city. STUDY DESIGN: A population-based, retrospective study of all individuals who had a least one physician contact in 1998 or 1999 (total N=536,893). METHODS: Logistic regressions were conducted to examine the relation between continuity of care, defined in terms of the proportion of total visits to family physicians (FPs) made to the same FP, and cervical cancer screening, breast cancer screening, influenza vaccination, pneumococcal vaccination, and ED visits, controlling for demographic variables, socioeconomic status (defined in terms of relative affluence of neighborhood of residence), and health status. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Continuity of care was related to better preventive health care and reduced ED use. A consistent socioeconomic gradient also emerged. For instance, the odds of having a mammogram was double for individuals living in the wealthiest neighborhoods, relative to those in the poorest neighborhoods (adjusted odds ratio=2.31, 99 percent CI 2.13-2.50). CONCLUSIONS: Having a long-term relationship with a single physician makes a difference even in a universal health care system. Moreover, socioeconomic disparities remain, suggesting the need to target specifically individuals from lower socioeconomic strata for preventive health care.