Project Type(s):
Population Health/Implementation

Perinatal depression is a common and serious disorder, with suicide representing a major cause of maternal mortality, but few women from low and middle income countries (LMICs) receive effective treatment. Effective models of care that improve perinatal depression and support suicide prevention exist but have not yet been widely implemented in routine maternal-child care services in LMICs. We plan to use a participatory approach to systematically identify and adapt key elements of evidence based models of perinatal depression care delivery to the cultural and health services context of Can Tho, Vietnam. Simultaneous exploration of potential implementation strategies to support and sustain this model in context will be identified along with the creation of a training and implementation toolkit for this setting. Using these strategies and tools we will then carry out a pilot perinatal collaborative care study in a public health center and the prenatal care practice of the Can Tho Obstetric and Gynecologic Hospital. The results of this pilot will be used to revise and enhance the treatment model and related implementation tools. These will be used in subsequent trials of effectiveness and/or implementation broadly in the health care system of Can Tho.

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