03/01/10 (CA):
Expert Speaks To Collaborative
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The violent death of a toddler last year has spurred a two-county effort to prevent such tragedies by reaching out to women who are having trouble coping after the birth of a child through postpartum depression.
The Inland Empire Perinatal Mental Health Collaborative will hold its first big community event, a seminar about the dangers of postpartum depression, Tuesday in Rialto. Dr. Diana Lynn Barnes, an expert witness on infanticide, and Dr. Merrill Sparago, a UCLA physician specializing in the treatment of women with postpartum mood disorders, will speak.
The collaborative started after Lori Burchett, 38, of Riverside, was charged in February 2009 with murder and assault on a child resulting in death. Her son, 17-month-old Garrison Burchett, suffered blunt force trauma to the head and a puncture wound to the abdomen, according to the Riverside Police Department. A trial date has not been set.
Perinatal mood and anxiety disorders have been identified in women of every culture, age, income level and race. The term perinatal refers to the period of pregnancy and the first year after a baby is born.
An estimated 15 percent of women will experience moderate to severe symptoms of depression and/or anxiety after giving birth; the percentage doubles among women with low income.
A more severe condition, postpartum psychosis, happens in about 1 to 2 of every 1,000 women who give birth. Among those women, about 5 in 100 will kill themselves or their babies.
Garrison Burchett's death resonated with Lisa Dryan, a mental health expert in Riverside. Helping mothers like Burchett might prevent such tragedies.
"The newspapers reported that she had a history of bipolar disorder," said Dryan, mental health director at Carolyn E. Wylie Center for Children, Youth and Families in Riverside.
"This really concerned me because I had worked with this population when I worked for the Department of Mental Health. ... I just didn't know what services were yet being offered because when I worked with this group, there just didn't seem to be any, anywhere," she said.
Dryan started working to form a task force to fill that void.
Reaching Out
Collaborative members have begun creating a private support network for women with the hope that they will reach out to others who are going through a similar experience.
"There is only one support group in all of San Bernardino County for women suffering from this disorder, and it is located at the San Antonio Hospital" in Upland, Dryan said. "Until the collaborative started a pilot group ... there were no specialized services in all of Riverside County for these women."
The collaborative's first support group, Moms Supporting Moms, began meeting on Mondays earlier this month at the Rubidoux Family Care Center in northwest Riverside County. If the interest in the group increases, another support group may be started at Wylie Center.
Dr. Mary Molle, nurse education coordinator at Cal State San Bernardino, said the collaborative needs women who know what it's like to have mental health problems after the birth of a child.
"It's really important that we have community members on the collaborative who have personal experience," she said. "As professionals we have evidence, but if we're going to make a real change, we need to know how it's really impacting people."
Hemet resident Hollene Kelley was at Wylie Center when she heard Dryan talking about the new postpartum depression task force.
She remembers thinking, "I was living this 47 years ago."
Kelley could have used such support when she struggled through perinatal depression with her first child, but at the time, the mood disorder was poorly understood.
She was 21, living in Illinois, isolated from friends and family. She hated being pregnant, and her newborn son had severe colic. At times, she hated him.
"I didn't think I was ever going to be fixed. It never crossed my mind anybody ever thought such things or did such things," she said.
"There's no doubt about it, in today's world, I'd be in jail for child endangerment," Kelley said. "I was always crying, there was no sleep ... and no rest during the day because he screamed all day long. And panic. I think I felt panic without even knowing what panic was."
She asked her husband if she could talk with a psychiatrist or doctor and was told, "Absolutely no way will you ever do that."
Eventually they moved back to California near her family and she improved. Seven years later, she had a second child but did not suffer the same way.
Kelley wanted to share her story so she might help other women in the same situation. She now meets regularly with the collaborative and will work with support groups and speak at future engagements.
"I don't mind talking," she said, "if it'll save another woman, another child."
Collaborative start
Initially, the Inland Empire Perinatal Mental Health Collaborative consisted of about 15 members, who began meeting once a month.
The group now has 75 members and 15 organizations involved, with subcommittees dedicated to training, support groups, media relations, grant writing and strategic planning.
Members still meet once a month, rotating between Wylie Center and the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, an agency that coordinates services for people with developmental disabilities.
The upcoming seminar is the first major educational step for the collaborative.
A grant from First 5 San Bernardino will pay for about 100 health professionals from San Bernardino County to attend and learn more about the symptoms and treatments for postpartum depression.
The collaborative hopes to create a safety net by educating health professionals and the community so they can spot the signs of postpartum depression, and then creating support groups and treatment options in the Inland region so women can get help.
As part of the collaborative, Wylie Center recently received a grant from First 5 Riverside that will fund an outpatient program for women suffering from postpartum depression. The program will allow the center to provide child care while the mother works with the center's mental health counselors.
Speaking Up
Riverside resident Dawn Burnett heard about the collaborative from her sister, who works at the Riverside County Department of Public Health. Her sister was aware of Burnett's postpartum experiences and was certain she would want to participate.
Burnett attends the collaborative's meetings and plans to speak at support groups and future engagements.
She suffered from postpartum depression with both children, now ages 11 and 3, and ended up spending 10 days in a Los Angeles mental hospital after the birth of her second child.
"The experience is still surreal," Burnett said. "I was scared; I felt like I was checking into jail."
She had an easy pregnancy both times and didn't have any issues immediately after each birth. But within a few months, things changed.
"I couldn't sleep, I was crying all the time and I felt panicked," Burnett said. "Panic brings a lot of energy, but with depression, your legs are concrete, you can't move. You feel like you want to run a mile, but you can't get off the couch. Little tasks like showering seemed impossible."
A trip to a Kaiser urgent care facility ended with a doctor finding her a bed at the mental hospital, where she sought treatment alongside patients dealing with severe schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and drug and alcohol addiction.
She was put on anti-depressants, sleeping pills and anti-anxiety medication. Her husband took time off work, visiting daily, sometimes bringing the kids.
She hadn't had suicidal thoughts, but she remembers thinking, "I want to die because I'm here."
But she went through the treatment and slowly improved. She followed up with visits to a therapist and now, three years later, is ready to share her story with other moms.
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