Strong roots perinatal dialectical behavior therapy: Building capacity and tailoring a mental health and early relational intervention to an urban Mexican context

This project adapts Strong Roots Perinatal Dialectical Behavior Therapy, an evidence-based mental health and early relational intervention, for perinatal women served by the Instituto Nacional de Psiquiatría Ramón de la Fuente Muñiz in Mexico City. Roughly one in five women in Mexico experiences perinatal depression, with far higher rates among those facing gender-based violence, obstetric violence and social adversity, yet specialized care is scarce and concentrated in a few institutions. Partnering Michigan and Mexican clinician-researchers, the team tailors the group-based therapy to the local context, trains clinic providers, and delivers it to women at the institute's Perinatal Psychiatry Clinic. Because the clinic is committed to sustaining the groups and trains 25 to 30 new providers each year, the work seeds lasting capacity to expand perinatal mental health care across Mexico's public health system.