• Intervention
• MIGHT Program
• Child-Parent Psychotherapy Program
• After School Program
• Summer Camp
• Parenting Skills Training
• Outpatient Child Trauma Services
• Services for Depressed Mothers & Their Children

MIGHT Program

Mt. Hope Family Center recently received a grant, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health to provide and evaluate interventions for low-income mothers and their infants (9-12 months of age). The study is called the M.I.G.H.T. Program (Mothers & Infants Growing Healthy Together), and is led by psychologists Sheree Toth, Ph.D., Fred Rogosch, Ph.D., and Dante Cicchetti, Ph.D. This study will investigate three forms of intervention for depressed women to determine which intervention is most effective in both treating maternal depression and in fostering developmental competence in the infants of the depressed mothers. The prevalence of depression is very high among low-income women, and although treatment is available, many low-income women do not receive services. Depression coinciding with low-income creates a particularly high-risk context for young children because children are confronted with not only the stresses of living in poverty but also the added burdens of being reared by a parent struggling with mental illness. Our program will offer one of three forms of intervention to depressed women.

One group of mothers will receive Interpersonal Psychotherapy to directly treat maternal depression. The second group will receive Interpersonal Psychotherapy, followed by Infant-Parent Psychotherapy, an intervention focused on addressing relationship difficulties between depressed mothers and their infants. The third group will be invited to attend informational meetings on maternal depression and will be referred to local services available for depression. These services are provided free of charge, so they promise to be extremely beneficial for uninsured or underinsured women. Referrals are currently being taken for this program. Please contact Michelle Kraft at 275-2991, ext 182 (Michelle_Kraft@urmc.rochester.edu).