National Implementation of Perinatal Mental Health Treatment—The MumSpace Digital Stepped-Care Model

Perinatal depression is highly prevalent, yet there is a very low rate of treatment uptake and help-seeking. The MumSpace Initiative was funded by the Australian government to invest in digital stepped-care treatments and support for perinatal depression, to improve mental health outcomes and national access. This paper describes the reach of the MumSpace initiative as a one-stop shop offering perinatal depression treatments with a solid evidence base (MumMoodBooster programmes), supported by a prevention programme addressing modifiable risk factors through a smartphone application (MindMum) as well as evidence-based universal prevention programmes. We have brought together multi-skilled teams and a Perinatal Depression Consortium to deliver the programmes and address changing technology. The effectiveness of MumSpace was evaluated through systematic monitoring of consumer reach: data analysis of website traffic and resource uptake. MumSpace has successfully sustained engagement, attracting over 275,000 visits since its launch in 2017, with the number of visitors to the website increasing year on year. The central treatment tools, MumMoodBooster and Mum2BMoodBooster, have reached over 10,000 Australian women, largely through self-referral. Despite the development of a portal for direct clinician referral and monitoring, continuing challenges for implementation involve integrating digital treatments into traditional services and recruiting professionals to directly engage mothers.