Posted by Kathy Mills
On Monday, June 29, Peggy Kaufman, Director of the JF&CS Center for Early Relationship Support® (CERS), and I attended “Bringing PPD Into the Light: Decreasing Stigma, Supporting Families, and Implementing Policy Change in Massachusetts,” the first Postpartum Depression (PPD) Awareness Day in Massachusetts. The event was hosted by Senator Joan Lovely, Representative Ellen Story, and Senator Bruce Tarr and was sponsored by the Ipswich Birth to Three Family Center. Providers, practitioners, health care workers, legislators, and parents gathered in the Great Hall of the State Capitol to share information and resources about postpartum depression.
We heard from many speakers including Jamie Belsito, a former federal lobbyist and business immigration expert. Jamie shared her personal experience with postpartum depression, describing missed opportunities for intervention that required personal tenacity in securing the resources and treatment she needed. Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito also spoke, announcing that MassHealth will begin reimbursing health care providers in the spring of 2016 for the costs of screening women for postpartum depression. We were thrilled with this announcement, which has been years in the making.
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