Perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs) are a leading cause of maternal mortality, making absent or incomplete behavioral healthcare before and after birth a direct threat to families in underserved communities. As 2025’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act threatens to paralyze the behavioral health workforce by capping federal loans for much-needed nursing and social work students, what solutions are on the table to keep making progress? In “Addressing the Needs of the Perinatal Behavioral Health Workforce,” a recent article in Behavioral Health News, NYU McSilver Executive Director Rose Pierre-Louis joined with Dr. Damali M. Wilson (Inaugural McSilver-IEHE Joint Health Equity Fellow), and Dr. Natasha J. Williams (Department of Population Health and Institute for Excellence in Health Equity at NYU Grossman School of Medicine) to outline solutions.
Pointing to tools like state-level investments like New York’s Excelsior Scholarship, loan repayment programs, an embrace of high-tech solutions, and innovative care models—such as empowering Community Health Workers, the authors show how we can protect mothers by deploying a diverse, tech-enabled workforce that remains accessible despite federal borrowing restrictions. Read the full article at Behavioral Health News.