About Us

NC Maternal Mental Health MATTERS (Making Access to Treatment, Evaluation, Resources, and Screening Better) Program provides real-time, perinatal psychiatric consultation as well as resource and referral services for health care providers who serve pregnant and postpartum patients. Our goal is to increase access to mental health care and substance use treatment for perinatal women across the state through provider training and support, as well as clinical and patient navigation services for patients.

What is NC MATTERS?

MATTERS is supported by a 5-year grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB) with the goal of enhancing systems for screening, assessment, and treatment of depression, substance use, and other behavioral health disorders in pregnant and postpartum patients.

The purpose of the MATTERS program is to support primary care providers with identifying and managing their patients’ behavioral health in environments where appropriate psychiatry services are scarce. MATTERS adapts models from MCPAP for Moms and pediatric psychiatric access programs. We also partner with Duke Integrative Medicine to build on the North Carolina Pediatric Access Line and create the North Carolina Perinatal Psychiatric Access Line (NC-PAL).

This partnership opportunity includes NC DHHS Division of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), Duke University, Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, Substance Use Services, and the Office of Rural Health. 

Sign up for our newsletter!

CLICK HERE to sign up for our monthly newsletter. You’ll get information from NC MATTERS and NC-PAL (Pediatric Psychiatry Access Line) about our clinical services, upcoming training opportunities, and other relevant information for health care providers.