UB researcher, Western New York agency win $208,000 NIH prize

By Matthew Biddle

Mickey Sperlich, PhD, an associate professor in the University at Buffalo School of Social Work, and the Buffalo Prenatal-Perinatal Network (BPPN) have won a $208,000 challenge prize from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) IMPROVE initiative to help improve maternal health outcomes in Western New York.

The award will help Sperlich and the nonprofit build upon their work to advance the Survivor Moms’ Companion (SMC), an evidence-informed intervention that Sperlich co-created for new and pregnant mothers with a history of trauma, sexual abuse or violence.

“Clinically, across the U.S., we assess for depression during the perinatal period, and there are programs to treat for depression — but there are no systematic programs for treating the effects of trauma during pregnancy,” says Sperlich, a midwife and expert on trauma during pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period.

The SMC aims to fill that gap through trauma-informed mental health education. Trained tutors guide participants through 10 modules, which discuss trauma, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and how situations during pregnancy and childbirth could activate prior trauma.

“Psychoeducation isn’t just about giving people a flyer. Real psychoeducation should involve the provision of information, skill-building to work with that information and support through the learning,” Sperlich says. “SMC does that — it has the information and skills that we work on throughout the modules and involves one-on-one meetings with a tutor to help you process that information and hook you up with higher levels of trauma treatment as needed.”

Sperlich and BPPN were first selected in January 2023 from more than 90 nonprofits to receive a $10,000 prize and participate in the NIH’s Connecting the Community for Maternal Health Challenge. In August 2023, they advanced to the research phase and received an additional $150,000 prize, which allowed them to train community health workers in the SMC model and recruit clients into the program.

Sperlich says they’ve documented a reduction in PTSD and depression symptoms, interpersonal reactivity and interpersonal sensitivity among participants. Anecdotally, participants have also said the SMC has helped by showing their feelings are normal and opening them up to the idea of therapy, according to Sperlich.

The new $208,000 prize, awarded and distributed last fall by the NIH, will allow BPPN to hire a licensed clinical social worker to manage the program and provide trauma therapy to clients. Because the social worker could bill Medicaid and insurance providers for counseling services, the latter would help BPPN build its capacity and ensure the sustainability of the SMC program within the agency.

In addition, Sperlich says the funding will help them recruit additional clients as research participants, and conduct a randomized controlled trial to gather data to further demonstrate the efficacy of the SMC as an intervention.

“It’s been my life’s work to address trauma in the perinatal period,” she says. “I’ve had very poignant experiences with my clients, where trauma has really shown up for them during their pregnancy, birth or early parenting period, so whatever I can do to help move the needle on that is really important to me.”

Matthew Biddle
Director of Communications and Marketing
School of Social Work
Tel: 716-645-1226
mrbiddle@buffalo.edu