What is postpartum depression? For some women, the feelings of sadness or exhaustion run deeper and last longer than baby blues. The symptoms of postpartum depression are triggered by childbirth and consist of feelings of being overwhelmed, prolonged sadness, anxiety, mood swings, and in severe cases, thoughts of harming oneself or one’s baby. New mothers, in particular teen mothers, may not know support is available and may be hesitant to share their experience with an adult or healthcare provider. It his recommended that they speak to their doctor or to a mental health professional, especially if they are having thoughts of harming the baby.

Teenage birth rate has declined from 9% in 1985 to 5,2% in 2002, but it still remains a serious medical and social problem (Koutelekos, 2018). Postpartum depression (PPD) affects one out of every eight birth moms; can happen anytime during the first year of birth; and, present as symptoms including anxiety, depression, mood swings and a sense of feeling overwhelmed (Postpartum depression, 2018). For some women, the feelings of sadness or exhaustion that follow a birth may last longer than what is commonly referred to as baby blues. Childbirth triggers postpartum depression. In addition to the emotions associated with PPD, women may have difficulty completing tasks; feel inadequate as a mother; lose her appetite; lack interest in her baby’s health and upkeep; and, feel hopeless. How PPD is treated depends on when it is diagnosed and the level of severity. A pre-existing medical condition will also impact the level of PPD. A doctor may refer a woman to a mental health professional or for psychological evaluation. In addition, many women are ashamed to share their feelings with anyone.

It is well documented that the rate of teenage pregnancies is higher among disadvantaged groups of young women who face socioeconomic challenges (Koutelekos, 2018). Data shows that only 50% of teen parents graduate from high school. Some have to cope with being a single parent at such a young age, attending school and battling PPD.

Purpose of The Proposed Group
This group will help support teen moms that are coping with postpartum depression. It will help them understand the challenges that their bodies and minds may face. Being young, they may not understand what their bodies and minds are about to go through. The purpose of the group is to help teen moms make sense about what’s happening. The group will do this by supporting them through giving information about planned pregnancy and help them to focus on knowing how to cope with postpartum depression.

Group Recruitment
The prospective group target I will be examining are young teenage moms from the age of 14-17 who either just had a child or are pregnant. One characteristic within the demographic ages of 14-17 would be that they desire to seek coping skills for unhealthy thinking of postpartum.

Screening
I will be conducting screening interviews for teen moms that meets that certain demographic. This will ensure the new teen moms that we’ll select are appropriate for the type of group we’re preparing. To be clear we’ll be screening new teen moms individually. This is to get the feel of how these new moms really act and conduct themselves during this process I want the new moms to feel very comfortable environment where I will be conducting the questions.

I have posted flyer in junior high and high schools, youth church groups, doctors’ offices, and offices of therapists, counselors, pastors, guidance counselors, probation officers, local youth centers, gynecologists, Planned Parenthood, community leaders, social services and hospitals.

Since my business is established with C.P.S., they sent referrals to me as well. Also, I need to make sure that everyone in the group is informed about how much we care about our client’s safety and what responsibility. I must discuss and disclosed confidentiality and informed consent. it is a must that every client knows about and by law I am a mandated reporter. Through this screening process I will be providing a series of questions to see if the group is appropriate for the 12-week session. Through this screening process it is very important that if participants have any questions or are uncertain of the process, they should ask the group leader These questions must be answered for the screening process here are the screening questions as follows:

Is this your first pregnancy?
Is the father still in the picture? In involved?
Was this pregnancy planned?
Were you taking birth control?
What support do you have?
Have you experienced domestic violence in the relationship?
Why do you want to join the group?
Have you participated in a group or in individual therapy before? What was that experience like for you?
Do you understand the purposes and the nature of the group?
Do you have any fears about joining the group?
Do you have reliable transportation?
Is this a C.P.S referral case?
Are you still in school?
Are you taking any medication?
Are you seeing a doctor?
Are you in counseling?
Do you smoke?
Do you drink?
What do you want out of the group?
Are you employed?
How long have you had your job?
Are you being abuse? Or in abusive relationship?
Do you live in proper housing?
What are your living arrangements?
Are your parents supportive?
How ready are you to take a critical look at your life or address a problem you are facing?
What are some specific personal concerns that you’d most like to explore?
What would you most hope to get from this group?
How old were you when you got pregnant?
How has having a child as a teen effected your social life?
What grade are you in?
How did you tell your parents?
How did your parents react to the news?
Did you want to have the baby or was it an accident?
How has becoming a mother at such a young age changed your outlook on life?
Are you receiving any kind of assistance? For example, like welfare government aid for you and your child.
Do you feel ready to be a mom?
Who referred you?
Do you know anything about postpartum?
Do you have your Ged?
Will your parents be willing to sign because you’re under age?
What are your plans after you have your child?
Are you willing to participate for 12 weeks?
Do you plan to go to college?
45.Are there any questions?

To have a good understanding and have all minds clear about the responsibility of a mandated reporter, we need to look over our confidentiality agreement. This is an agreement that we will go over in meetings so that you truly understand how important confidentiality truly is, your information is safe and also kept confidential I want you to be very comfortable sharing in the group with things that makes you very comfortable. By law I must and will keep it that way. It can be broken if there are any suspicion of child abuse for example: if your child is malnourished and also not eating due to the lack of food, elderly abuse – Not taking you to your doctor’s appointments, and also if want to hurt yourself or others. This is if your plans are thought out and continue to do so. As a mandated reporter we want to keep you safe at all times.

Group Leader’s Minimum Qualification & Responsibilities
I’ve worked for Planned Parenthood for 10 years as a group counselor which I also have my degree in social science. I’ve been also working with children as well as adolescents and me myself have suffered from postpartum depression for I am more than qualified to be running this group. I have been facilitating this group particular group for young ladies for the past 15 years. I’m a Harvard graduate that studied particularly in psychology of children. I have a Ph.D. in child psychology. At the end you signed a sheet at the end of our last session we got permission to check back on them to see how they were against statistics to see how affective the group was, I have checked back with previous teen mom and women from schools, and Through C.P.S . that have suffered from postpartum depression to see if the group was very effected to them, I found 95% of the women that attended the group could understand what postpartum is and utilized the coping skills taught in this group to help better lives and move forward and learning how to deal with postpartum.

Group Structure
I would like to welcome all new teen moms to the group, this is a closed group which means no one can enter the group for another 12 weeks this group will meet in Lil put lounge every Monday evening at 5:00 pm the group will start on time there is 1 15 minute break and there are no leaving early if so I will speak to you privately concerning your attendance, if you will not be able to attend or have an emergency please contact me at least 24 hours in advance. It is extremely important to attend all sessions as we go over a lot of material, if you miss more than 2 groups we will meet privately to see if this will work out for you.

Group Rules & Responsibilities
Now that we went over group structure I would like to talk about group rules and guidelines the group I expected to know about as well as certain rules of the group I will be passing around a form that have what is expected of you in the group I will give you all a copy for your records this is to remind you of what you think about the group and if you want to add some feedback your more than welcome to do so, there is always something that other clients want to share or talk about please feel free to do so the group can participate as well. The rules are set and solid so please follow them very carefully if you’re not able to understand anything please feel free to speak with me concerning any miscommunication.

These are the group rules and responsibilities:
The group meeting starts at 5:00 pm and ends at 7:00pm
At the entrance of entering the group we recommend that your cells are turned off and given to the staff, so the phone don’t cause any distractions while in group because we want you to focus on becoming successful without any distractions, you will be able to pick up your cell phone immediately after group is over
The doors will be closed and locked at 5:05 you have five-minute grace period that’s to give everyone in the group time to get settles and prepared on their lesson and activity. Once the door is closed it will remain locked until group is over with please do not knock on the door to cause any type of distractions to be let in because once the door is closed that’s it.
We will have a 15 minute break at 6:15 returning at 6:30 for some reason that you leave the group early you will be marked as an absence so please make sure you return back to the group so you can get your full time with the group 4 absents is considered a drop from the program you are allowed 3 excused absences.. so, use them wisely,
There is no food at all unless you get it approved by me or a supervisor!!!!! You can have drinks in a clear spill proof water bottle any alcohol/ drugs brought to the premises you will be (Expelled) from the program.
There will be no smoking on the premises at all it is a smoke free zone if you must or need to smoke you must go across the street.
When it’s time to share please keep in mind to keep it short with a 3-minute minimum due to other clients would like to share as well.
There will be no cross talking (which is no side talking or interruptions) give the other client time to be heard in the group sharing.
There will be no using of profanity.
We will respect each other’s feelings.
We will respect each other’s feelings.
Please keep in respect the different cultures attending the group. Every culture has their own values. We do not want to make anyone uncomfortable, so please recognize the diversity and act accordingly.
In keeping with our confidentiality statement, there is to be no on-line social media involving any aspect of this group. This means no friend requests, no relationships, no disclosing of any other member or no pictures posted.
Group members are to refer to each other on a first name basis only. We are going to build a bond with one another, but keeping our privacy is an important part of healing and setting boundaries
Please use “I” statements when addressing the group. Although we come from similar backgrounds, the experience you have had may be different from the experience of everyone else.
Be prepared to participate. Group participation is needed to get the most out of these next 8 weeks. You are here for a reason, so participate.