Addressing Grief in the Perinatal Period – 1 CE Hour

Join us for a webinar with Catherine Monk, PhD, of the Perinatal Pathways Lab at Columbia Medical Center on a model for working with women and partners facing pregnancy loss or neonatal death and clinical approaches to treatment. She will also be joined by Jennifer Kenny, a psychiatric nurse practitioner in the NICU for a discussion of ways to pay attention to and manage your own grief while helping families. 

Webinar recorded on June 12, 2020.

Learning Objectives

1. Describe the frequency at which pregnancy loss and neonatal death occur
2. Identify the ways in which technology can increase access to care 
3. Explain the clinical issues that emerge in treating grief related to pregnancy loss and neonatal death in both parents and staff

About the Presenters

Dr. Catherine Monk is Professor of Medical Psychology in the Departments of Obstetrics & Gynecology (Ob/Gyn) and Psychiatry, Columbia University Medical Center, Research Scientist VI at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, and Director of Women’s Mental Health @Ob/Gyn, an initiative to embed mental health care in primary care. In her clinical role, she and her colleagues frequently treat women and their partners facing pregnancy loss or decisions to end pregnancies based on identified genetic risks and/or other abnormalities. Dr. Monk’s research brings together perinatal psychiatry, developmental psychobiology, and neuroscience to focus on the earliest influences on children’s developmental trajectories — those that happen in utero and how to intervene early to help women and prevent risk for mental health disorders in the future children. Among other funded projects, Dr. Monk is PI on two NIH R01s:  Intergenerational Transmission of Deficits in Self-Regulatory Control and an intervention study Preventing Postpartum Depression: A Dyadic Approach Adjunctive to Obstetric Care. 

Jennifer Kenny, NP-P, PMHNP-BC, is a nurse practitioner of psychiatry on the Women’s Mental Health @Ob/Gyn team at Columbia University Medical Center. She has completed clinical training at NYU, Bellevue Hospital and in the Department of Perinatal Psychiatry at Zucker Hillside Hospital of Northwell Health. In her role on the Women’s Mental Health @Ob/Gyn team Ms. Kenny provides both psychotherapy and psychopharmacological interventions for patients. The focus of her research has been the intersection of maternal mental health and neonatal critical illness. She has a special interest in working with patients coping with fetal diagnosis, neonatal critical illness, perinatal grief and loss. Prior to her work in mental health Ms. Kenny worked as a congenital cardiovascular care nurse and was part of a pediatric emergency response team. Ms. Kenny also has experience working with perinatal palliative care. 

Continuing Education

American Psychological Association

The Center for Prolonged Grief at Columbia School of Social Work is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The Center for Prolonged Grief maintains responsibility for this program and its content. 

Note: Many state boards recognize the APA approval. Please check with your state licensing board.

New York State Education Department

1. NYSED State Board for Psychology recognizes the Center for Prolonged Grief as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists (#PSY-0150).
2. NYSED Board for Social Work recognizes the Center for Prolonged as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers (#SW‐0727).
3. NYSED State Board for Mental Health Practitioners recognizes the Center for Prolonged Grief as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed marriage and family therapists (#MFT-0080).

Note: Non-NYS social workers, marriage and family therapists, and other professionals please check with your state licensing board. Many states have recognized our continuing education programs as we are at a CSWE-accredited institution and part of a regionally accredited university.