Inside HRSA's maternal mental health hotline campaign
HRSA has tapped six maternal mental health champions to helm a public health campaign about the agency's 1-833-TLC-MAMA maternal mental health hotline.
The Health Resources and Services Administration wants you to know there's help available for anyone facing maternal mental health needs.
Building on the success of its maternal mental health hotline (1-833-TLC-MAMA), the agency has announced plans to raise awareness through community health partnerships with what HRSA calls its maternal mental health champions.
"We're thrilled with the progress of the hotline," Jordan Grossman, the deputy administrator of HRSA, said in an interview.
HRSA launched the maternal mental health hotline on Mother's Day in 2022 with the intent to help pregnant people or new mothers get help for any anxiety or overwhelm they might be feeling. The hotline is free, confidential and available to users via phone call or text in either English or Spanish, with the option for interpretation in more than 60 other languages.
In 2022, there were 22.3 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, according to the CDC. Mental health conditions are the leading cause of those pregnancy-related deaths, HRSA added, citing CDC figures indicating that around 80% of pregnancy-related deaths are preventable.
That's where the hotline comes in.
"We've served more than 50,000 people over the past two years, and we've gotten an extraordinarily positive response," Grossman said.
According to HRSA figures, 77% of the calls that the hotline fields are made by women in need themselves. More than half of callers are looking for postpartum help, while about a quarter were pregnant when they called.
The majority of callers were experiencing anxiety (20%), depression (24%) or feelings of overwhelm (33%), HRSA data shows.
The number of people helped, as well as the personal testimonies HRSA features on its website, are promising, but Grossman said the agency wants to go even further.
Whether you're going to the grocery store, you're going to the pharmacy, you're starting a baby registry, and even at the children's hospital, folks can see and learn about this hotline and have access to that resource.
Jordan GrossmanDeputy administrator, Health Resources and Services Administration
"We know there are many more women who could benefit from the hotline," he asserted.
Earlier this month, HRSA announced maternal mental health champions, a group of six entities charged with helping the agency spread the word about the hotline. The champions include retailers, grocers, pharmacies and health or community organizations, who are committed to promoting the hotline using HRSA's educational materials, the agency said.
At the time of the announcement, HRSA had six partners to announce: Albertson's Companies, Babylist, Children's Hospital Association, CVS Health, National Diaper Bank Network and Walgreens.
"What really motivated us to launch this campaign is to make sure every mom, every pregnant woman, knows that this really accessible, easy-to-use resource is there for them," Grossman explained. "Whether you're going to the grocery store, you're going to the pharmacy, you're starting a baby registry, and even at the children's hospital, folks can see and learn about this hotline and have access to that resource. We're really proud of how many people we've reached so far, but we know we can reach many more."
A case study in public health education
HRSA prioritized prominence when selecting maternal mental health partners. Indeed, these businesses and organizations have a presence in all 50 states and thousands of locations.
But Grossman said it was also important that HRSA worked with organizations that were eager to promote their materials. This campaign is a case study in public health education, and it was important for HRSA to identify partners who would help with campaign awareness.
HRSA had to be strategic in the messaging and campaign materials it produced, Grossman continued. Public health messaging needs clear messaging and a culturally tailored approach, experts say.
For HRSA, it was important to create messaging material that centers on the facts that matter most to potential callers.
"We want to make sure that the information is really clear and direct," Grossman said. "That's something we've learned from both our research and our more anecdotal reactions."
Users will want to know that use of the hotline is completely confidential; it's free and available 24/7 via phone or text, he added.
HRSA also added a QR code that lets the public save the hotline to their phone. After all, not everyone who sees the campaign materials will need the number in the moment, but they might want it on hand should they need it in the future.
But it's that clear and direct messaging that was front and center for the agency, Grossman explained.
"We know a lot of moms will say, 'I'm going to make sure my kids get to the doctor and get the help they need,'" he said. "But their own health sometimes takes the backseat. We want to make sure that folks know there's someone for you, someone you can reach out to. Someone's going to answer the phone or usually answer the phone in 30 seconds or less when someone reaches out. We want to make sure moms and pregnant women know that this resource is available to them."
KPIs to track progress
As noted above, HRSA is noticing positive trends with its maternal mental health hotline.
But as it continues with its awareness campaign, it will be critical for the agency to track KPIs.
To be clear, HRSA's first priority is confidentiality during calls, Grossman stressed. While many public health awareness campaigns or resources might track certain caller demographics, HRSA leaves that completely optional. For example, although an operator might ask a caller her race or ethnicity, she is not required to give that answer in order to protect her privacy or identity.
But that doesn't mean there aren't important metrics HRSA examines to aid system improvement.
"One of them is how quickly we're responding," Grossman said. "We want to make sure that when people reach out, we're getting back to them as quickly as possible."
HRSA is also focused on why people call the hotline. This information helps HRSA staff the hotline, but it also helps the agency describe how it can be used.
"It's not what you'd call a 'crisis hotline,'" Grossman pointed out. "We have training for the counselors to connect folks when there is a crisis, but many people aren't necessarily even comfortable thinking, 'Hey, I have a mental health challenge.' Instead, they may think, 'I'm feeling overwhelmed, I'm feeling anxious about everything that's going on.'"
Put simply, HRSA tracks why callers access the hotline so it can mirror back that language in its promotional materials. This reduces the risk of stigmatizing a potential caller or discouraging use.
Finally, HRSA wants to know whether the hotline is being reached via phone or via text. Since inception, the hotline has seen mostly a 1-to-3 ratio of text to call, but that population that's texting the hotline is critical, Grossman said.
"One thing we've heard anecdotally from the stakeholder convenings we've had in nine states so far across the country is a little bit of an age divide," he noted. "Particularly, we hear from our younger moms and our caseworkers who work with younger moms. That ability to text is really, we've seen and have found to be, extremely valuable, particularly for folks on the younger side."
Tracking these KPIs is a key step forward as HRSA considers more maternal mental health champions.
"We're really proud that the first six maternal mental health champions that we named have such a broad presence, but we know that there are many other entities," Grossman concluded. "We really want to expand this as much as possible. We want this to become a commonly understood, well-known resource, just as well-known as you would people know about 9-1-1."
Sara Heath has covered news related to patient engagement and health equity since 2015.
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