We All Have a Role in Supporting Families
The Gorge Perinatal Mental Health Initiative (PMHI) was formed to address prenatal and postpartum mental health concerns in the Columbia Gorge region. We believe parents in our community should be able to have their mental health concerns addressed and that all parents feel supported.
PMHI was born out of a need to raise awareness, build capacity, and strengthen resources for families suffering from perinatal mood and anxiety disorders.
Check it out!
Last year, the Gorge Perinatal Mental Health Initiative was invited to share our story about our program with the University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center. They published our case study.
Check it out on our research page
SUPPORT GROUPS
Support groups are a great way to meet other parents, address challenges you may face, gain perspective and strength, and get connected to other resources. Our groups provide a non-judgmental space to explore and validate your feelings. Our support group leaders are trained in group peer support, are parents themselves, and have experienced a perinatal mood and anxiety disorder.
We currently have 4 support groups running each week and one virtual option meeting twice a month. Join us for connection and support!
Task Force
PMHI is a multi-year grant funded project. Perinatal is defined as the time surrounding birth, which includes both pregnancy and postpartum. PMHI aims to increase community awareness about perinatal mental health issues, increase collaboration among community-based organizations and providers to serve perinatal families better, increase resources for new parents, and identify current screening, referral, and treatment practices among clinics.
The following organizations, agencies, or individuals participate in our task force:
Hood River County Health Department
Klickitat Valley Health
Mid-Columbia Children’s Council
Mid-Columbia Medical Center Women’s Clinic
NorthShore
One Community Health
Parents or people with lived experience
Providence Women’s Clinic
Roots Northwest
Skyline Medical
The Next Door, Inc.
Washington Gorge Action Programs
Join us for our next quarterly perinatal mental health task force meeting. This is for providers, clinics, agencies, and anyone who cares for pregnant and post-birth families in anyway. We also welcome community members who have a passion for pregnancy and postpartum families and lived experience.
Join us on May 1st, 2024 via Zoom. Email us for a link.
Community Education
Perinatal Mental Health Screening and Implementation Workshop
March 14th & May 2nd, 9-11:30am
This workshop style training is designed to create a cohort learning opportunity for programs and organizations seeking consultation and training to prepare for perinatal mental health screening. The training will guide teams through the entire process of implementing a perinatal mental health screening program including selecting an appropriate screening tool for your specific program/population, developing a program-specific Policy and Procedure Manual, Resource and Referral Document, and direct service team training and implementation.
Trainer: Lynn Ingram McFarland
If your program, or a program you know about may be intertest in this opportunity reach out for more information.
Work with us!
If you are local to the Gorge and interested in the work we are doing, we would love for you join our initiative!
CEKC
We are fiscally sponsored by Community Enrichment for Klickitat and Skamania County