MENTAL HEALTH & SUD

Current Initiatives

AMCHP is committed to supporting our members to address mental health and substance use disorders (MH/SUD) among MCH populations at the state level and to advocating at the national level. Learn more about why this is a priority area for AMCHP and our members and how we are committed to addressing this through our strategic plan and legislative agenda.

Check out the Mental Health Corner in AMCHP’s Member Briefs to stay up-to-date on mental health events and happenings.

Current Initiatives

The Perinatal Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Implementation & Policy Hub is a two-year initiative aimed at improving outcomes for families affected by perinatal substance use disorder (SUD).The initiative will connect more families to high quality, non-stigmatizing perinatal SUD resources and supports by replicating and amplifying effective perinatal SUD practices and strengthening the capacity of the perinatal SUD field to advance policy and engage in cross-sector collaboration.

Our strategy involves three key activities:

  1. Increase the number of effective perinatal SUD practices, policies, and tools in the MCH Innovations Database and lead national trainings featuring these and other perinatal Sud best practices;
  2. Provide in-depth technical assistance and implementation stipends to six organizations via two cohorts of 9-month Replication Projects to replicate these practices; and
  3. Convene national leaders across the perinatal SUD system to develop a Perinatal SUD Collaboration and Policy Action Plan, which will outline steps to strengthen perinatal SUD systems nationwide.

Project Resources:

Perinatal Substance Use Disorder Replication Projects:

  • Utilizing Innovation Hub’s existing Replication Project structure, AMCHP is currently supporting a 9-month cohort of 3 organizations to replicate practices and policies that specifically address perinatal substance use disorder (SUD). AMCHP will facilitate a second cohort of perinatal SUD-specific Replication Projects from March-November 2026.
  • Selected organizations receive a $10,000 implementation stipend and in-depth technical assistance through a coach from the original practice organization to provide implementation support and guidance, and a coach from AMCHP to provide customized technical assistance and connect teams to subject matter experts. Awarded organizations also receive implementation science training and peer sharing opportunities to learn from other awardees in the cohort.
  • Learn more about our current Perinatal SUD Replication Project grantees and their selected practices below:

Spring 2025-Winter 2026 Practices Being Replicated

Spring 2025-Winter 2026 PSUD Replication Project Grantees
Children and Recovering Mothers (CHARM) Team; Vermont

Led by the KidSafe Collaborative, the CHARM Team is a multi-agency collaboration that supports pregnant and postpartum women with opioid use disorder (OUD) and their infants by coordinating care across medical, behavioral health, child welfare, and social services. CHARM improves maternal and infant outcomes through comprehensive, non-punitive, and family-centered support grounded in harm reduction, care access, and overall family well-being.

Essentially Empowered, Inc.; Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Essentially Empowered, Inc. (EEI) provides support and advocacy to women and youth that have experienced trauma. EEI provides doula services, perinatal & post-partum support as well as advocacy for teens. They also offer a variety of educational opportunities with a trauma-informed approach for doulas and birth workers.

Improve Perinatal Access Coordination and Treatment: Behavioral Health (IMPACT BH); Colorado

The IMPACT BH program funds local organizations to enhance perinatal navigation services, improves care for perinatal mental health and substance use through provider training, promotes coordination among care providers, and enhances local perinatal behavioral health solutions. Run by the Colorado Perinatal Care Quality Collaborative, it strengthens networks, ensuring pregnant and postpartum women have access to the care and resources they need for better health outcomes.

Latched Support; San Antonio, Texas

Latched Support is a nonprofit organization that empowers growing families with life-saving pregnancy and parenting education through resources and advocacy so that children may receive a healthy start in life. Latched Support works through empowering parents to redefine what’s possible for their families while strengthening tomorrow’s community.

Jenna’s Project; North Carolina

Jenna’s Project, developed by UNC Horizons, provides care coordination and treatment to pregnant and postpartum women with opioid use disorder (OUD) transitioning from incarceration. The program has demonstrated success in preventing fatal overdoses and reincarceration by offering services like medication for OUD, housing support, and assistance with Child Protective Services cases, with no reported fatalities or overdoses at 6 months post-release.

East Tennessee State University, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology; Johnson City, Tennessee

The ETSU Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology prides itself on equipping medical students and resident physicians to provide high quality, comprehensive care for their patients. In addition to the care provided by their attending physicians, resident physicians and nurse practitioners, they also enjoy input from case managers and experts in nutrition and lactation. Their Medication Assisted Therapy Program is a trailblazing initiative that provides prenatal care, medication assisted therapy, case management and psychological support all in one setting.

Supported by the greater Adolescent and Young Adult Health National Resource Center (AYAH-NRC), AMCHP co-leads the AYA Behavioral Health Collaborative Improvement and Innovation Network (CoIIN), composed of multidisciplinary teams from select states. These teams operate through their public health systems (led by state Title V/maternal and child health programs) and primary care systems (led by clinical partners and practices).

To respond to this growing mental health crisis, the AYAH-NRC is mobilizing the CoIIN to improve depression screening and follow-up for young people through 1.) systems-level behavioral health integration in primary care, and 2.) increasing screening rates for Major Depressive Episodes (MDEs) in clinical settings using practice-based quality improvement tools and methods. The goal is to achieve an 80 percent screening rate for MDE in patients ages 12 to 25 using an age-appropriate standardized tool, with documentation of a follow-up plan when screen results are positive. To learn more about the AYA-Behavioral Health CoIIN, please refer to the current initiatives on the Adolescent Health page.

To receive updates from the #ScreenToInterveneForAYAs: Blog on Youth Mental Health, sign up here and contact Anna Corona (acorona@amchp.org) to have your writing featured!

Twitter: @AMCHP_GrowingUp
Twitter Hashtag: #ScreenToInterveneForAYAs

Access to quality health care for MCH populations is a nationwide concern. Nowhere is this more apparent than in access to substance use and mental health services. The goal of the PRISM project is to build the capacity of Title V MCH leaders to develop and implement policy initiatives that improve access to substance use disorder and mental health care for reproductive-age women. PRISM is a joint effort of AMCHP and the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO).

Multi-State Learning Collaborative

The PRISM project supports state teams through a cohort learning collaborative model. Nine states and jurisdictions have participated in PRISM cohorts, through which they receive training and technical assistance from AMCHP and ASTHO on promising approaches to improve  behavioral health for reproductive-age women and engage in peer learning opportunities  

Behavioral health learning opportunities for the MCH field

The PRISM team offers educational opportunities for states to advance policy and programming to address mental health and substance use disorders among MCH populations. Topics have included: addressing barriers to prevention, treatment, and recovery; perinatal harm reduction; strategies for working with policymakers and state legislatures on behavioral health initiatives, approaches to destigmatizing behavioral health; and primary care integration. 

The PRISM team also partners with other national organizations working at the intersection of behavioral health and MCH, including the National Association of State Alcohol and Drug Abuse Directors (NASADAD), the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), and the Georgia Health Policy Center (GHPC).

Email prism@astho.org to sign-up for the PRISM monthly newsletter.

Funded by HRSA/MCHB, AMCHP’s Core Cooperative Agreement includes a focus on current and emerging public health issues, including mental health and substance use disorders in MCH populations. This project includes information-sharing on best practices and approaches to improve mental and emotional health and well-being within MCH. AMCHP also provides technical assistance to state Title V programs to address challenges in responding to the mental and behavioral health prevention, treatment, and recovery needs within their states. Two recent technical assistance topic areas include building the capacity of Title V to develop and implement anti-stigma activities and developing strategies for integrating primary and behavioral health care for MCH populations along the continuum of care. To carry out this work, AMCHP collaborates with national, state, and local mental health organizations and agencies as well as subject matter experts to provide training to state MCH program staff on key cultural and socioeconomic considerations for mental health and substance use disorders for different MCH populations.

The Mental Health Team is composed of staff from AMCHP’s six content teams. Internally, the AMCHP mental health team envisions an organization that is well-positioned to build the capacity of Title V programs to address the behavioral health needs of their MCH populations. Externally, AMCHP envisions a future where mental health is seen as integral to overall health for MCH populations. AMCHP promotes integrated systems, reducing stigma, and increasing access to mental health and substance use services. To strive toward these internal and external goals, the Mental Health Team has three primary functions.

  1. Build the capacity of AMCHP staff to integrate mental health programming into their existing projects and grant proposals.
  2. Support the implementation of services and activities that promote the mental health of AMCHP staff and their families.
  3. Provide guidance and support to state Title V staff to address mental health issues in MCH populations.

To contact the AMCHP Mental Health Team, please email mentalhealth@amchp.org.

MENTAL HEALTH & SUD

Recent Resources & Tools