Integrating Maternal Depression Screening Into an Early Intervention Program: An Implementation Evaluation

In all 50 states, early intervention (EI) services to improve long-term child cognitive and academic outcomes are provided to infants and toddlers with suspected or diagnosed developmental delays. When mothers of EI-enrolled children experience depressive symptoms, uptake of EI services can be compromised.

The purpose of the article is to present a depressive symptom screening intervention for mothers consisting of toolkit development for EI staff and families, symptom screening for mothers and follow-up protocol. To formally evaluate the implementation of the intervention, our research team followed the consolidated framework for implementation research (CFIR).

Participants were 12 EI service coordinators across two offices. Focus groups and individual interviews were used to develop the toolkit and education module. Through the five CFIR domains, we evaluated the implemented intervention in order to allow other teams to learn from our experiences.

Our team successfully partnered with SCs to develop the intended deliverables. Still, the SCs found it challenging to conduct the screenings and reported mixed success.

Preparation of EI SCs to integrate mental health screenings into their existing skillsets requires a high level of support from the research team, resulting in a rich understanding of the barriers-and potential rewards-for staff and families.