Background/objective: Within the first months of childbirth, clinically significant depressive symptoms are experienced by 19% of mothers in the US, and are even more prevalent among low-income and ethnic-minority women. Paradoxically, low-income and ethnic-minority mothers are faced with unique barriers that make them less likely to receive professional mental health care. To find ways to remove these barriers, a recent US trial extended use of a United Kingdom intervention, Listening Visits (LV), an evidence-based treatment delivered by home visitors/office nursing staff.
Methods: A qualitative content analysis was conducted with participants' (N=19 in an open trial and N=49 in a randomized controlled trial) responses to a post-treatment semi-structured interview assessing their views of LV. The percentage of participants endorsing each thematic code is presented.
Results: When the provider first introduced the LV intervention, 77.9% of women retrospectively reported having positive views of trying this new approach. Recipients most frequently mentioned as helpful two aspects of LV: empathic listening/support and the collaborative style of the LV provider. Half of the women (50%) did not suggest changes to how LV were delivered. Among those who suggested changes, the most frequent (42.6%) suggestion was to increase the number/duration of sessions.
Conclusion: Listening Visits is an acceptable depression treatment approach, as perceived by low-income, ethnic-minority mothers, which health and social service providers who serve this population can use.
Keywords: culture and psychotherapy; depression; depression treatment; ethnic-minority mothers; low-income; qualitative research methods.