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Paige Bellenbaum never could have anticipated how COVID-19 would impact the health care organization that’s the culmination of her life’s work.
A licensed master social worker, Bellenbaum is the founding director of The Motherhood Center, which provides supportive services for New York City women suffering from perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs). These afflictions affect some 20% to 25% of expectant and new mothers, and are the No. 1 complication associated with childbirth.
Having suffered from severe postpartum depression after the birth of her son, Bellenbaum became committed to advocating for women with PMADs, drafting legislation regarding education and screening that was signed into law in New York in 2014.
Fortune spoke with Bellenbaum for a new series, The Coronavirus Economy, to ask about how COVID-19 has affected The Motherhood Center’s work and its patients, her employment status, and her plans for the future as well as to get a sense of how she has been handling this news, both emotionally and financially.
Fortune: Can you describe the mission and clientele of The Motherhood Center?
We’re essentially the only organization in New York City—and one of just a handful nationwide—providing clinical treatment and support to both pregnant women and new mothers with PMADs, which most people traditionally refer to as postpartum depression. Its diagnoses include depression, anxiety, OCD, bipolar disorder, personality disorder, and rarely, postpartum psychosis.
Having treated over 4,000 people since opening our doors in 2017, we offer everything from support groups to individual therapy to medication management with reproductive psychiatrists specializing in pregnancy and postpartum medication. We’re also licensed in New York State to run a day program—a five-day-a-week partial hospitalization program that’s an intermediate level of care between inpatient and outpatient—which makes us very unique.
When and how did your staff mobilize in response to the coronavirus threat?
Thankfully, some of our staff jumped on the panic bandwagon before the rest of us and said, “We need to get in front of this now.” The past three weeks have been a literal around-the-clock scurry to create virtual treatment in real time at all of our treatment levels. We made the final decision to go entirely virtual on March 13, and it was all hands on deck that weekend so we’d be ready to launch on March 16.
Had you planned to launch a virtual program this year?
Before the coronavirus, we’d explored the idea of telehealth—and considered slowly rolling out outpatient treatment as a potential option in 2021—but we never thought we’d include the day program because of these women’s illness level.
Then, the week of March 9, the New York State Department of Mental Health issued a slew of in-real-time guidelines and new regulations for telehealth—directly in response to the current crisis—to ensure that residents’ mental-health care needs would be met. The coronavirus forced us to go all-virtual.
What did creating a virtual program entail?
Finding and implementing Zoom was easy—building out a virtual curriculum was the labor-intensive part. We run five groups daily, including a skills group and expressive therapies like art therapy (we sent all our moms home Friday with bags of art supplies so they can do virtual sessions). We had to reinvent our entire curriculum with two people running a virtual class instead of the usual one in person, to ensure we’re providing as much safety and security as possible.
What are the complexities of offering this kind of treatment virtually?
We work with a highly acute population—many of whom have suicidal ideation or have been hospitalized with psychosis. So we had to devise a whole system of what to do if somebody zooms out without notice or is offscreen for 10 minutes. We created a call tree, and made sure that we have everyone’s phone number and emergency contact information.
Also, traditionally a therapist would walk into a group session when time permitted and pull someone for individual therapy. Now every patient in the day program has an assigned time slot when they come out of the virtual room and enter a new room to meet with their therapist or psychiatrist.
In addition, we’re creating a virtual nursery where moms can pop in and get advice from our nursery director around sleeping and eating.
Is the coronavirus impacting your actual curriculum?
Yes. We’ve started offering brand-new programming in relation to the coronavirus, including a webinar called “Managing anxiety in the time of coronavirus as a parent,” for which we’ve been inundated with registrations. We’re offering virtual support groups to capture moms with underlying PMADs who are also anxious about the coronavirus. We’re rapidly adding onto what we already offer, and can’t keep up with the emails requesting additional coronavirus resources and support.
Are these treatment options available outside New York State?
In response to this crisis, we’re opening up our support groups, webinars, and similar offerings to mothers across the country. If someone outside of New York State needs or requests individual therapy or a higher level of care, we work closely with Postpartum Support International, which has coordinators and resources around the world.
Is the coronavirus complicating your staffing issues?
Everyone’s working from home, and we’re taking this day by day. If childcare becomes an issue, we’ll figure it out. We always knew we had a phenomenal team, but the amount of work they’ve put in to make sure these women get the care they need at such a critical time has been amazing.
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Subscribe to Fortune’s Outbreak newsletter for a daily roundup of stories on the coronavirus and its impact on global business.
