Maternity Care Clinicians' Experiences Promoting Infant Safe Sleep and Breastfeeding During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the phenomenon of clinicians' perceptions and experiences of promoting infant safe sleep (ISS) and breastfeeding during the COVID-19 pandemic. DESIGN: Descriptive qualitative hermeneutical phenomenology of key informant interviews conducted as part of a quality improvement initiative. SETTING: Maternity care services of 10 U.S. hospitals from April through September 2020. PARTICIPANTS: Ten hospital teams, including 29 clinicians. INTERVENTION: Participants were part of a national quality improvement intervention focused on promoting ISS and breastfeeding. Participants were asked about challenges and opportunities promoting ISS and breastfeeding during the pandemic. RESULTS: We identified four themes summarizing the experiences and perceptions of clinicians promoting ISS and breastfeeding in the COVID-19 pandemic: Strain on Clinicians Related to Hospital Policies, Coordination, and Capacity; Effects of Isolation for Parentsin Labor and Delivery; ReevaluatingOutpatient Follow-Up Care andSupport; and AdoptingShared Decision-Makingaround ISS andBreastfeeding. CONCLUSIONS: Our results support the need for physical and psychosocial care to reduce crisis-related burnout for clinicians to encourage the continued provision of ISS and breastfeeding education, particularly while navigating capacity constraints. Our findings also suggest that clinicians perceived that parents may require additional support to enhance potentially limited ISS and breastfeeding education. These findings may be used to inform approaches to parental and clinician maternity care support in future public health crises.

College psychiatry: Strategies to improve access to mental health

This book explores the practical strategies outlined by national thought leaders to improve access to mental health care in the practice of college psychiatry. It addresses the escalating need for mental health services on college and university campuses. Concise yet comprehensive, the book considers the college experience for the increasingly diverse student body, including non-traditional college students, first-generation college students, and students with a history of mental illness. Beginning with a discussion on the current national health trends in college mental health, chapter one explores the current epidemiology of student mental health problems, the systemic challenges in recruitment, and funding psychiatric services. Subsequent chapters then delve into the various systems and models of psychiatric care for college students, including differing parental involvement levels and the importance of collaborative care to short term management and referral of students at risk. Chapters five and six examine mental health considerations for LGBTQ, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color students. Further chapters analyze the critical nature of successfully navigating a leave of absence, as well as the consideration of threat assessment on college campuses. The book closes with a highly relevant evaluation of telemental health and telepsychiatry in the College Setting as it pertains to the ongoing barriers to care caused by COVID-19. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)