Licensed clinical social worker Katie Monarch describes the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS).
Katie L. Monarch:
The Edinburgh Depression Scale is ten questions, basically asking you how you have felt in the past seven days, and in those ten questions, they each have a rating scale. Question number 10 asks you if you have ever thought of harming yourself or harming somebody else. How we use the Edinburgh Scale is we screen our moms in the hospital.
If moms score moderate to high, then that is the opportunity that we take to follow through with mom to see how she is doing, and so we contact her at four to six weeks. We do the Edinburgh Scale again. We compare the two scores and then we contact mom again at three to six months using the Edinburgh Scale and comparing the scores to see how she has improved.
About Katie L. Monarch, L.C.S.W.:
Katie Monarch is the Project Director for the Post Partum Depression program at St. Joseph Hospital in Orange, California, where she helped design an education-focused facility. At this hospital all new mothers are screened for postpartum depression through the Bridges for Newborns program using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS).
Visit Katie L. Monarch at St. Joseph Hospital