Perinatal Peer Support for Veterans With Serious Mental Illness

There are currently no perinatal mental health interventions designed for or tested among Veterans with SMI. Reach Out, Stay Strong Essentials (ROSE)-a five-session evidence-based psychosocial intervention for prevention of postpartum depression in women without mental illness-is currently being implemented in the VA health care system. To date, ROSE implementers have noted the benefits of the intervention for pregnant Veterans, but have also shared its shortcomings for those with SMI, including its limited attention to current psychiatric symptoms, limited postpartum support, and minimal content related to unmet social or clinical needs.

Peer support-offered by individuals with lived experience of mental illness-is emerging as a key component of VA mental health care, and recent Congressional mandates call for expansion of VA peer support services for women. Perinatal peer support has been shown to improve mental health outcomes in non-SMI populations, but there have been no studies of its effects in women with SMI or Veterans. To address these gaps, the investigators will develop and pilot an adapted, peer specialist-delivered perinatal mental health intervention for Veterans with SMI, blending ROSE with components from evidence-based perinatal and SMI peer support models, and tailored to perinatal Veterans' unique needs and the VA context.

Guided by the Transcreation Framework, an implementation science framework for community-partnered development of behavioral interventions for vulnerable populations, the Specific Aims are to:

Aim 1. Engage Veterans and key VA clinical staff in identifying potential components of a tailored peer support intervention for perinatal Veterans with SMI. Individual semi-structured interviews with pregnant and postpartum Veterans with SMI and VA women's mental health providers will assess the experiences, needs, and care preferences of perinatal Veterans with SMI, as well as desirable intervention components of existing perinatal and peer support interventions. Focus groups with VA Maternity Care Coordinators and women VA peer specialists will also explore intervention components and implementation considerations.

Aim 2. Develop and refine the intervention. Using Delphi methodology, the investigators will present potential intervention components-drawn from ROSE and existing peer support interventions, and accompanied by relevant data from the literature and Aim 1 findings-to an expert panel of VA multilevel constituents to identify final components as well as adaptations to optimize fit to the target population and VA women's health settings. The investigators will then develop the intervention prototype and materials in an iterative process in collaboration with operations partners, women Veteran peer specialists, and mentors.

Aim 3. Assess the feasibility, acceptability, and exploratory outcomes of the intervention in a pilot study. This single-site feasibility pilot will include approximately 24 Veterans with SMI enrolled during pregnancy and engaged through approximately 3 months postpartum, randomized to perinatal peer support or usual care. Mixed methods evaluation will focus on feasibility and acceptability, as well as exploratory clinical (e.g., depression) and service utilization outcomes.

Inclusion criteria

• pregnant Veterans with serious mental illness

• a diagnosis of major depressive disorder
• PTSD
• bipolar disorder
• schizophrenia
• other psychotic disorder

Exclusion criteria

• Participants will be enrolled in the outpatient setting, and therefore will not be eligible to enroll while admitted to an inpatient psychiatric unit