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. 2022 Dec 7:13:1032419.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.1032419. eCollection 2022.

Telehealth Listening Visits for emotionally distressed mothers of hospitalized newborns: Proof-of-concept

Lisa S Segre  1 , Jennifer E McCabe  2 , Rebecca Chuffo Davila  3 , Stephan Arndt  4
Affiliations

Telehealth Listening Visits for emotionally distressed mothers of hospitalized newborns: Proof-of-concept

Lisa S Segre et al. Front Psychiatry. .

Abstract

Problem: Newborn admission to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) is stressful. Yet in clinical practice, at best, NICU mothers are screened for depression and if indicated, referred to a mental-health specialist. At worst, no action is taken. Listening Visits, an empirically supported nurse-delivered intervention addressing emotional distress, can be conveniently provided by a NICU nurse. Prompted by the need to minimize face-to-face contacts during the pandemic, the primary purpose of this small pilot trial was to assess the feasibility of having nurses provide Listening Visits to NICU mothers over Zoom. Secondarily, we assessed pre-to post-Listening Visits depression symptom scores as a preliminary evaluation of the effectiveness of this type of support.

Materials and methods: Nine NICU mothers with mildly to moderately severe depression symptoms received up to six Listening Visits sessions from a NICU nurse via Zoom. Participants completed the Inventory Depression and Anxiety Symptoms-General Depression scale (IDAS-GD) at study entry and 4- and 8-weeks post enrollment. They completed the Client Satisfaction Questionnaire (CSQ) at the 8-week assessment.

Results: Using an intent-to-treat approach, the effect of time from the mixed model analysis of IDAS-GD was statistically significant (F(2,26) = 10.50, p < 0.001), indicating improvement in IDAS-GD scores from baseline to follow-up. The average CSQ score was high (M = 29.0, SD = 3.3), with 75% of participants rating the quality of help they received as "excellent".

Discussion: In this pilot trial, we learned it is feasible to provide Listening Visits over Zoom, that this mode of delivery is associated with a significant decrease in depression symptom scores, and that women value this approach.

Clinical trial registration: [https://clinicaltrials.gov/], identifier [#201805961].

Keywords: Listening Visits; NICU nurse; maternal emotional distress; neonatal intensive care unit (NICU); nurse-delivered counseling; task shifting; telehealth.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Consort flow diagram.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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