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Q&A
Proposals for maternal health psychologists and women's concussion clinic
0:37:05
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174 sec
Council Member Narcisse inquires about proposals to hire maternal health-focused psychologists and create a pilot women's concussion clinic for domestic violence survivors. Dr. Katz discusses the potential implementation and benefits of these programs.
- Proposal for $5 million to hire maternal health-focused psychologists in H+H maternity departments
- Discussion of the need for mental health support for new mothers, especially in the first year after delivery
- Proposal for $300,000 to create a pilot women's concussion clinic for domestic violence survivors
- Plan to augment existing program at Kings Hospital and use it as a pilot for other hospitals
Mercedes Narcisse
0:37:05
Okay.
0:37:06
The council budget respond called for the addition of 5,000,000 to allow HNH to hire a maternal health focused psychologist in each HNH maternity department.
0:37:20
If this funding is included in the adopted budget, in which ways could this proposal be implemented and which hospitals are currently in urgent need of mental health support for new mothers and their families?
Mitchell Katz
0:37:35
I think all the hospitals would benefit from having additional mental health personnel.
0:37:42
I think part of, you know, the the misunderstanding about maternal mortality is how many of the deaths occur long after the delivery.
0:37:53
And that there is a tremendous need to support new moms in the first year.
0:38:00
So if the funding is provided, we would expand.
0:38:04
We certainly do our best with existing mental health personnel, and we try to prioritize the needs of new mothers because we see it as, you know, such an important issue.
Mercedes Narcisse
0:38:16
The council budget response also called for 4,500,000.0 to hire 60 new maternal health peer specialists to staff the city's multi agency mental health and crisis response teams in coordination with HNH.
0:38:32
Has there been any conversation between HNH and OMB regarding this request?
Mitchell Katz
0:38:39
I know OMB understands the crisis about maternal mortality but we have not yet gotten a funding amount for it.
Mercedes Narcisse
0:38:55
Okay in both the fiscal twenty twenty five and fiscal twenty twenty six council preliminary budget response, we called for the addition of $300,000 for the creation of the pilot women's concussion clinic which was not added in the executive budget.
0:39:11
The clinic would provide trauma informed care to domestic violence survivors through H and H or to be contracted out.
0:39:20
What are the agency's thoughts on the proposal and how would you implement if the funding is made available?
Mitchell Katz
0:39:28
We have worked closely with our sister department to end gender based violence, and Kings very close to your district, has a sort of state of the art program that really focuses on the risks of suffocation and head trauma.
0:39:48
So if this gets funded, we would absolutely augment that program at King's and look at that as a pilot for other hospitals as well.