A partnership to provide comprehensive perinatal mental health and parenting support for the first 1,000 days (conception through child’s 2nd birthday)
Every year, some 10,000 of the 85,000 babies born in Washington State are born into circumstances considered high-risk, including parental mental health or substance use disorders. These disorders are associated with poor health outcomes for children and are a leading cause of maternal mortality.
Effective care for perinatal depression, substance use, and other behavioral health challenges is one of the best strategies we have to help women during critical periods in their lives, to support families with new children, and to prevent future mental health and substance use problems. A number of health systems and community-based resources are available, but they don’t always reach people in need, and they can be complicated to access. Currently only 1 in 5 people with mental health or substance use disorders receive effective, comprehensive care before, during and after pregnancy.
The vision: health families, healthy babies
Long term goal: make UW Medicine and ultimately Washington state the healthiest place in the country to have a baby.
The Raising Washington Initiative seeks to develop an evidence-based fully integrated perinatal support program that will offer mental health care, parent training and support services for the first 1,000 days of a baby’s life for every high-risk baby born in Washington. This will include creating care pathways informed by the needs of patients and providers, navigators to help guide families through the many care transitions in the perinatal period and accessible information to keep parents and babies healthy.
The program
Raising Washington is supported by the Garvey Institute and UW Medicine Advancement to develop an evidence-based fully integrated perinatal support program at the University of Washington. The initiative has strong Executive leadership from UW Medicine departments of Family Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Midwifery, Pediatrics, and Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Schools of Nursing and Social Work. The Clinical Leadership Team developing the program consists of providers working with families, parents, and babies through the perinatal continuum. Critical to the success of this program is the development of a Navigator team who will work alongside parents and clinical providers to support families during pregnancy and the child’s first two years of life.
In Spring of 2026 through 2027 we will launch a Pilot of Raising Washington to test this program with 100 women delivering a child at UW Medicine.
To learn more this work, please contact Lori Ferro, MHA, project manager (ljf9@uw.edu).