The Canadian Alliance for Maternal Mental Health is a national organization promoting maternal mental health.
In 2016, a network of Maternal Mental Health psychiatrists, social workers, nurses, administrators, and other advocates across Canada recognized the need for a national alliance to facilitate opportunities to increase awareness and decrease stigma of maternal mental health. The alliance aims to increase collaboration among researchers thereby sharing specialised knowledge related to screening, diagnosis and treatment with both professionals and lay people. By lobbying for increased treatment resources, ultimately the aim is to lead more women to maternal mental wellness.
As a national organisation, the Canadian Alliance for Maternal Mental Health proclaimed a national Maternal Mental Health Day to be the first Wednesday of May each year, coinciding with World Maternal Mental Health Day. The campaign works to raise awareness of maternal mental health issues so that more women will get treatment and fewer women, children, and families will suffer.
Research shows that upwards of 75% of women do not get the treatment or support they need for the mental health disorders they struggle with during pregnancy and the first postpartum year. This carries a very high, preventable, emotional cost to women, children, and families, as well as a substantial financial cost to society. The average cost to society of one untreated woman is about $150,000, with a significant proportion of this cost related to adverse effects on her child. With the solidarity of the Canadian Alliance for Maternal Mental Health we hope to make these statistics a thing of the past.