Next week,CityMatCH and NACCHO are co-sponsoring a free conference call for public health professionals and others who work in maternal-child health.

"Addressing Maternal Mental Health in Local Health Department Healthy Start Programs" is set for Thursday, October 26 from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Eastern.

Featured speakers are Belinda Pettiford, MPH, supervisor of the Perinatal Health and Family Support Unitt, Women’s and Children’s Health Section at the North Carolina Division of Public Health and president of the National Healthy Start Association; Lisa Derrick, MEd, BAM, program director of the South Phoenix Healthy Start athe Maricopa County Department of Public Health in Arizona,; Yvonne Beasley, MN, RN, project director of Indianapolis Healthy Start and director of maternal and child health at the Marion County Health Department in Illinois; and Shelley Vaughn, MS, program manager of Indianapolis Healthy Start at Marion County Health Department in Illinois.

The call will describe the efforts of the Healthy Start program to provide maternal mental health care (including screening and referrals), describe case studies in providing this type of care at two Healthy Start sites, share useful resources for providing maternal mental health services, and will include discussion of challenges faced by the program in providing mental health care.

Registration is open -- Just click here.