Matter – Perinatal Mental Health

The Matter’s project is a highly important program that aims to carry out the screening and early intervention of the parents' emotional distress during pregnancy and after birth. The program invites pregnant women and those in the first year of postpartum to receive screening questionnaires directly via SMS on their cell phones, in order to allow and facilitate monitoring by their family’s doctor and nurse, thus allowing you to know the state of mental health and properly support the patients during this challenging phase of their lives. This program also has as its main objective not only to centralize this implementation in hospitals, but also in Primary Care Health Units.

Several Units in the district of Évora were invited to implement the program, together with ULSAC (Local Health Unit Alentejo Central – Évora’s Hospital), also including the CPCJ (Commissions for the Protection of Children and Young People). Through these intervenients, it will then be possible to track and collect data in order to properly monitor Perinatal Mental Health. The intention also involves proposing implementation at a national level, taking into account future results and thus closing a “gap” that exists in the area of Perinatal Mental Health in Portugal.