The NICU Parent Program: A randomized quality improvement initiative to reduce mental health symptoms among NICU parents.
Parents of EP infants often experience high levels of stress, depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress symptoms, which can affect both their well-being and their ability to care for their baby. Early, targeted support has been shown to reduce this burden. The NICU Parent Program is a randomized quality improvement initiative designed to evaluate the benefits of a brief, six-session psychological intervention in reducing mental health distress symptoms amongst parents of extremely premature (EP) infants hospitalized in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital – Texas Medical Center. The brief six-session intervention is modeled on an ongoing program at Stanford that was developed and found to be beneficial (prior single-center randomized trial) in reducing depression and post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms (PTSD) in mothers of preterm infants at discharge and at 6 months post-partum.
Interested mothers (and fathers or primary caregivers) will be randomly assigned to receive either the supportive care routinely provided through the NICU Family Support (NFS) program or the usual care plus a brief 6-session intervention in an individual (one-on-one) format from Week 2 through Week 7 after birth. The intervention will be offered by a licensed psychologist either online (through a secure video call) or in-person at the NICU to best suit the needs and schedules of parents. We will measure the feasibility and acceptability of this intervention, depression, PTSD, and anxiety scores at 8 weeks, 6 months, and at 2 years (adjusted) post-natal age.
Purpose & Aim
Population: Interested parents of infants born < 27 weeks of gestation who survive Day 7 of life and are hospitalized in the NICU at Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital – Texas Medical Center.
Intervention: A brief trauma-focused psychological intervention (delivered one-on-one from Week 2 through Week 7 of infant hospitalization)
Control: Usual Care in our hospital is offered to families through the NICU Family Support Program
Outcome: Parental mental health symptoms (including depression, PTSD, and anxiety), feasibility, and acceptability of the intervention, maternal breastmilk feeds, adherence to follow-up care, and psychosocial outcomes.
QI Program Information
Target Recruitment: As many eligible parents as possible each year, aiming for ~50 per year (for a total of 2 years)
Funding Sources: SEED funding from the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences (September 2024 – August 2025) and the Institute for Clinical Research and Learning Healthcare (December 2025 – December 2027)
Duration of Study: May 2025- 2027
Project Lead
Assistant Professor
Louis A. Faillace, MD, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
1941 East Road, Ste 2100
Houston, TX 77054
(p): 713-486-2517
[email protected]