The PLIDA Education and DEI committees hosted a new webinar from the 2024 - 2025 Webinar Series!

Improvement of Mental Health Symptoms Following a 6-week Virtual Support Group Program for Bereaved Parents

VIEW THE RECORDING (all who signed up, and paid, for the webinar should receive a code to view the recording).

Presented by 
Kiley Hanish, OTD, OTR/L and Betsy Winter, BA

Thursday, October 10, 2024

Session Description:
After experiencing pregnancy or infant loss, bereaved birthing parents experience significantly higher levels of depression and are more likely to be diagnosed with other mental health conditions than those who give birth to infants who survive through the first year of age. Gold (2008) reports that perinatal loss resulted in a 4 times greater chance of screening positively for depression and a 7 times higher risk of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Moreover, many parents who experience pregnancy or infant loss are not screened or diagnosed and therefore do not receive treatment. 

RTZ HOPE created a 6-week, curriculum-based virtual support program for bereaved parents. Mental health assessments (PHQ-9 and GAD-7) were administered pre- and post-attendance of the 6-week virtual support group program, and this presentation reports on the effectiveness of these virtual support groups in reducing depression and anxiety post-perinatal loss.