Did you know that the Las Vegas valley is one of the most diverse cities in the United States with the second-highest rate of interracial marriage in the country, and its state of origin, Nevada, has the fourth-highest rate of combined multiracial and multiethnic live births? 

Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas

Certainly, Las Vegas is a major metropolitan area filled with vibrancy and diversity. But it also has important mental health challenges: an undiversified economy that is subject to the whims of entertainment—leading to insecure employment, shift work, healthcare and education challenges, and many other issues. In the five years that Mental Health America has rated and ranked the State of Mental Health in America, Nevada has never risen above 47th of 51 states. In fact, the most current overall rating puts Nevada in the 51st position out of 51. In response to Nevada’s dire mental health situation, Governor Sisolak has declared Nevada in a state of mental health crisis.

Following a year of social distancing, mask-wearing, and heightened stress, Nevada is expected to have a disproportionate and negative mental health impact. As of November of 2020, Nevada had a higher rate of child and adolescent suicide than any other state in the nation. Such negative outcomes are likely to continue impacting vulnerable populations such as children, adolescents, as well as pregnant and newly delivered mothers.

Unfortunately, Nevada is also a state that lags behind others in regard to maternal healthcare and up until the 2019 legislative session was one of only seven states that lacked a maternal mortality review committee.

Like postpartum depression, postpartum posttraumatic stress disorder can impact mothers’ mortality and certainly their ability to effectively support attachment styles and their own children’s mental health outcomes. The threat to pregnant women is so dire that researchers have called on facilities, cities, states, and countries to develop a detailed mental health crisis program for expecting and postpartum women. It is for this reason that mental health preventative care for women in Nevada is vital.

The valley needs mental health programs to address the community’s specific struggles—particularly those that target vulnerable populations. Mothers through antepartum, intrapartum, and postpartum care are vulnerable—vulnerable economically, health-wise, within their family dynamics, and certainly in reference to their mental health.

Happy Birth Day advances community-based practice in the area of mental health as well as maternal health. It broadens the concept of occupational therapy practice settings to maternity care units in hospitals. Occupational therapists’ role in this area is multidimensional; yet, they stand to fulfill mental health gaps in maternal care. Happy Birth Day stands to protect the mental health of postpartum mothers... particularly in the Battle Born state.