Parental mental health screening in the NICU: a psychosocial team initiative

Abstract

About 40–50% of parents with children admitted to Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU) experience clinically significant levels of depression, anxiety, and trauma. Poor parental mental health can negatively influence parent–child interactions and child development. Therefore, early identification of parents at-risk for clinical distress is of paramount importance. To address this need, the psychosocial team, including psychology and psychiatry, at a large, level 4 Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) developed a quality-improvement initiative to assess the feasibility of screening parents and to determine rates of depression and trauma in the unit. About 40% of mothers and 20% of fathers were screened between 2 weeks of their child’s hospitalization. About 40–45% of those parents endorsed clinically significant levels of depression and anxiety symptoms. Recommendations for enhancing the feasibility and effectiveness of this process are discussed and considerations for future clinical and research endeavors are introduced.