Agenda - Council - 09/13/2022 - Laserfiche WebLink

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experienced increased mental health challenges, including high levels of depression, anxiety, loneliness, and post -traumatic stress during the pandemic.142 Home visiting services provided to families, particularly new mothers and newborns, feature regular home visits from trained nurses, social workers, and/or counselors who provide health care, mental health resources, positive parenting support, support in making personal health decisions, and awareness of other potentially helpful services. These functions have become even more essential at mitigating negative factors associated with the pandemic. Home visits give professionals a chance to flag potential domestic violence, which has risen worldwide over the course of the pandemic.143 Racial health disparities can also be driven down by home visits. For example, Black women are more likely to avoid hospitals during the pandemic, and home visitors can help either assuage concerns around hospitals or give effective advice for alternative methods of childbirth.144 Given the disproportionate effect of the pandemic on people of color, home visits are an essential equity tool that tackle major negative effects of the pandemic. These are just a few selections from the evidence that suggests many home visiting models can have a positive effect on maternal physical and mental health.145 Treasury Response: Home Visiting: Given the widespread impact of COVID-19 on pregnant and recently pregnant individuals, Treasury is re -categorizing home visiting services as an eligible use for impacted communities, not just disproportionately impacted communities. 142 A Basu, HH Kim, R Basaldua, KW Choi, L Charron, et al., A cross -national study of factors associated with women's perinatal mental health and wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic, PLOS ONE 16(4): e0249780, (2021), https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249780. 143 Amanda Taub, A New Covid-19 Crisis: Domestic Abuse Rises Worldwide, New York Times (April 6, 2020), https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/06/world/coronavirus-domestic-violence.html. 144 Xenia Shih Bion, Efforts to Reduce Black Maternal Mortality Complicated by COVID-19, California Health Care Foundation (April 20, 2020), https://www.chcf.org/blog/efforts-reduce-black-maternal-mortality-complicated- covid-19/. 145 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Home Visiting Evidence of Effectiveness, https://homvee.acf.hhs.gov/outcomes/maternal%20health/In%20Brief. 98