Lessons Learned in the Development and Implementation of Preventive Interventions for Maternal Depression

This link will bring you to a video presentation by Dr. William Beardslee on the Alberta Family Wellness Initiative website.

“Dr. William Beardslee presents on the increasingly strong evidence base for mental health promotion and prevention for children, youth and families. He emphasizes the importance of a developmental perspective by using different kinds of interventions across the span of childhood. Dr. Beardslee’s presentation discusses the benefits of a system with fully implemented mental health preventions.  He focuses specifically on parental depression and after briefly reviewing what is known about its costs and prevalence, he discusses a variety of preventive interventions that offer considerable promise. In terms of adolescents and adults, cognitive-behavioral approaches have demonstrated that it is actually possible to prevent episodes of major depression including youngsters at high risk because their parents are depressed. He advocates the potential of a prevention model in Canada.”