In Whatcom County, about 2,000 births occur each year. From those births, about 20% of mothers will experience a perinatal mood or anxiety disorder, and many more may need additional mental health support.
Facts like these led Whatcom County’s Michelle Anderson to create Mobile Mama in 2014, soon after she gave birth to her third child. Anderson, a licensed mental health counselor (LMHC) in Whatcom County since 2009, says that the transition to motherhood — regardless of how many children a woman has — can always be tricky.
In creating a therapy practice focused on perinatal mental health, Anderson has sought to remove obstacles to care. She has met with clients in office settings, in their own homes and — since the pandemic — in telehealth sessions, which currently comprise about half Mobile Mama’s caseload.
“That’s been a great opportunity for this population,” she says of telehealth. “We want to be as accessible as we can.”
A Growing Need
Despite hiring four additional full-time perinatal mental health specialists in recent years, Mobile Mama has continued to see a growing demand that’s led to long waitlists. Anderson estimates her practice is turning away 10 to 15 potential clients a week due to lack of capacity.
Compounding matters in a region that already has a general shortage of mental health practitioners, nearly half the new births at PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center are by mothers enrolled in Medicaid — a form of health insurance many therapists won’t take due to its low reimbursement rates.
“Almost 60% of our clients are enrolled in Medicaid,” Anderson says. “If there wasn’t a Mobile Mama, there would not be perinatally-trained providers to take the vast number of pregnant and new mothers on Medicaid.”
Concerns over meeting demand for counseling led Mobile Mama to start an internship pilot program, with each intern able to see up to a dozen clients per week. The latest round of three internship slots are funded through the Healthy Children’s Fund — a countywide initiative to support vulnerable children and families, and for expanding early education, childcare, and family support.
The fund was passed by voters in November 2022. The initiative raises money through a property tax levy of 19 cents per $1,000 of assessed value, helping raise around $9 million per year towards a multi-pronged approach to addressing issues that impact kids and can have long-lasting positive impacts on their health and wellbeing. The county also dedicated $13 million of federal American Rescue Plan Act funding to support early learning and care in the last few years.
Among the Fund’s goals is recruiting a mental and behavioral health workforce that can adequately meet the county’s demand. The two-year contract between the county and Mobile Mama funds three interns who’ll begin duties in August 2024, January 2025, and August 2025. Additional funding from a private donor and North Sound Accountable Community of Health led to another intern position that began in April 2024, with a second to join the county-funded intern in August 2024.
Each intern receives extensive perinatal mental health training of over 600 hours, including 240 hours of supervised direct service with Medicaid-enrolled clients, and a monthly stipend. Building capacity to identify, refer, and treat perinatal mental health concerns, especially for Medicaid-enrolled families, is a core strategy of the Perinatal Mental Health Task Force, which Anderson helped found and lead.
Whatcom County’s Health Officer and pediatrician Dr. Amy Harley agrees with this approach.
“Support for parental mental health offers long-term benefits for the whole family by fostering healthy emotional bonds, reducing stress, and encouraging positive health behaviors,” Harley said. “Mental health supports are a critical need in Whatcom County, and this is a strategic investment in our community’s long term future.”
Funding internship programs like this is one way the Healthy Children’s Fund is growing the mental health workforce and addressing the shortage of licensed counselors in Whatcom County. The experience these interns receive is critical for their career, since 2,700-3,000 hours of supervised experience is required for full licensure as a Mental Health Counselor in Washington State.
Looking Ahead
Mobile Mama is the only perinatal mental health practice north of Everett, and Anderson says she gets inquiries from San Juan, Island, and even Snohomish counties, as well as Seattle-based Perinatal Support Washington. Whatcom County residents, however, are given priority.
Anderson also recently spoke to Washington Governor Jay Inslee, explaining the need for more trained therapists for both perinatal patients and those on Molina and other Medicaid-based insurances.
Current interns in the program are doing well, Anderson adds, but all of them are English speakers. Moving forward, she says, Mobile Mama would love to hire multilingual mental health specialists, allowing them to serve Spanish- and Russian-speaking populations they’re currently unable to reach due to language barriers.
For those interested in being a Mobile Mama intern in 2025–26, Anderson says they’re looking for candidates with empathy and passion.
“We want our clinicians to really have this non-judgmental approach to parenting, birthing, and pregnancy,” she says.
Those interested can email Anderson at michelle@mobilemama.com.
In the meantime, Anderson reminds perinatal women experiencing mental health issues to be unafraid to reach out for the help they need.
“It’s so normal and natural to need support during this period in life,” she says. “When moms are doing well, they’re able to attach and attend to their children, and developmental outcomes for their kids are profoundly better.”
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