Nearly half of Arizona’s pregnancy related deaths in 2022 were tied to mental health or substance use disorders, with 98% deemed preventable, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services. And communities of color and rural communities see disparate effects and a lack of perinatal care.
The legislature passed a law in 2021 establishing a maternal mental health advisory committee. Last year, health care agencies, providers and nonprofits convened to study mental health and maternal mortality, and in January, the committee issued proposals to stem the tide.
And at the beginning of June, the first recommendation came to fruition.
Dr. Kathryn Emerick, a perinatal psychiatrist, now serves as the co-director of the Arizona Perinatal Psychiatry Access Line, a hotline designed to create further accessibility by assisting all medical providers in treating mental health and substance use disorders in pregnant patients.
“We’re talking about something that fundamentally, foundationally impacts moms and children and families and communities on this massive scale,” Emerick said. “And with this illness that is treatable, and with these deaths that are completely preventable, we don’t have to have this level of suffering and death that we have in the state.”
The Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System issued a $1.6 million grant to the University of Arizona to make APAL possible.