Statements

Mission

Increasing access to affordability to mental health support for parents and parents-to-be across the southeast region.

Background

The Rooted Bridge was founded in 2018, providing mental health support for parents and parents-to-be. It was founded by Amy Green, alongside 23 other board members, The Rooted Bridge has launched services in 2019. The first event was hosted in February with over 20 women in attendance with a focus on the postpartum season.

October 15th Pregnancy & Infant Loss Event
This October, the nonprofit will host a free event open to the public to honor lost pregnancies and infants. This will include lighting of the Korean Veterans Memorial Bridge and a Zoom Meeting to gather families that have lost a child in pregnancy or the first year of life. COVID-19 has forced a change in this event. Last year on the pedestrian bridge more than 60 people gathered for this remembrance. We plan to return to this in person event in the years to come. The most meaningful part of events such as these, identified by the participants, was being able to connect with other people around typically taboo topics.

Loss Task Force
The Loss Task Force has become a central component of The Rooted Bridge's offerings. We have formal partnerships with Centennial Medical Center, St. Thomas Midtown Hospital, and Williamson Medical Center. The program allows the families to have an advocate walk with them through their stillbirth/loss experience at the hospital- a time that has been identified as essential in being able to process and cultivate meaning for the overall healing journey through loss. The advocate then establishes a follow up session in the home to bring them their personalized support items, as well as get them connected with resources in the community such as lactation consultants, loss doulas, and grief/loss therapists who specialize in pregnancy loss. The loss task force has established a volunteer base of advocates that have been trained in the loss advocate curriculum. The Rooted Bridge has continued to provide marketing tools for the hospitals to ensure education and awareness of the program. Thus far in 2020 we have served 20 families despite a significant reduction in hospital access by our volunteers as a result of COVID-19. Our goal for 2021 will be to reengage in person support for losses within hospitals and continue to promote the program to cultivate awareness.

Impact

Feedback that we have received from our community around the impact of this program is included in the following testimonials:

"After you lose a baby, you suddenly become a minority in the type of motherhood that you now have to journey. The Rooted Bridge told me I don't have to be alone in my motherhood and parenting to a baby who lives in heaven. I have those who have walked before me and those who are walking with me to teach me how to love and parent my daughter as she thrives in heaven. -Becca"

"The Rooted Bridge provided me with a group of women that understand the major struggles of loss at a time when no one else understands. It provided me with women who have become dear friends that walk through life with loss together. -Erin "

"The Rooted Bridge was instrumental in easing my trauma following our daughter's stillbirth. My OB, Dr. Crowe, connected me with the Rooted Bridge once I found out our daughter's heart was no longer beating. The Rooted Bridge changed the course of my delivery and hospital stay. They encouraged me to make memories with our daughter and coached me through the unthinkable. Coming home from the hospital, they continued to stay in contact w/ me. They helped me find a therapist and connected me with a Stillbirth Support Group for loss moms. These women have normalized my feelings, provided community, and comforted me like other friends cannot - these women 'get it.' And while we're all members of a club we don't want to be in - the women I've met through the Rooted Bridge have been an absolute game changer in how I navigate life after loss. I cannot imagine this journey without this organization. -Jane"

Capacity Building
Another goal was to establish a base of clinicians that are trained in maternal mental health/perinatal mood disorders. With our partner HCA, we were able to host and support a Postpartum Support International (PSI) training program in January 2020. This training session included space to train 80 healthcare workers including birth workers such as doulas, therapists, medical staff (nurses, nurse practitioners and physicians) in the Nashville and surrounding areas focusing on Tennessee, Kentucky and Alabama. However, the training ultimately drew a crowd of 125 providers spanning areas across the country. There are rural counties across Tennessee that struggle significantly when a mother is in crisis and has identified that she has had suicidal ideations because their only crisis resource is calling the police and having the woman stabilized in a local jail cell. By collaborating with the TN Public Health Department and HCA, The Rooted Bridge was proud to bring Postpartum Support International training to people in these areas so that we can support the establishment of a better referral base. The Rooted Bridge contributed 10 full scholarships for participants committing a portion of those scholarships to the person of color community. In addition, another grant from the Minority Health Division of the Public Health Department provided 20 more scholarships. The lack of people of color trained to care for this community is further evidence of the disparity of care in our area. Furthermore, we had six board members from The Rooted Bridge who attended the training. Due to ongoing efforts in TN, we now have over 500 trained providers across the state in 2021 able to treat perinatal mood disorders.

Referral Pathway
In addition to capacity building of providers, currently the only resource to find a provider who specializes in maternal mental health is google and psychology today. These two resources unfortunately can be misleading, as clinicians can self-identify that they specialize in this area without having attended a formal training. That said, The Rooted Bridge is in the final stages of building out a referral pathway for providers to utilize across the state with clinicians who are trained in perinatal mood disorders- making referrals and access to care easy.

Needs

The Rooted Bridge is able to continue to have an impact with your support and engagement.
1) Expand the nonprofit services and programs
2) Fundraise to support ongoing service provision
3) Collaborate with hospitals to ensure timely provision of services for loss families

If you have interest in this organization and mission, please reach out to us therootedbridge@gmail.com for more information on current volunteer opportunities, board opportunities, as well as upcoming events and fundraisers.

CEO Statement

Dear friends,

Thank you so much for your interest and commitment to our mission. The Rooted Bridge was founded in 2018 to ensure that women and their families have meatal health support throughout infertility, loss, pregnancy and postpartum. As the Founder and Executive Director, this mission is both personal and heartwork. After experiencing three losses before having our rainbow baby, I sought out counseling and support and forge a path forward, as well as build community around us that would be our champions and cheerleaders as we became a family of three. I sought out a certification in Perinatal Mental Health to be able to assist women and their families in my profession. I have had the honor to sit with many women and their families in many different seasons of their lives, hearing their stories, and supporting them to create meaning out of their life experiences. And it is out of this heartwork as a therapist that it became abundantly clear that our current resources for women and their families do not meet the presenting needs in our community and in the Southeastern region of the US. We have some big goals to meet over the next three years, and it is with our board and volunteers that we will achieve that. This has gone from a dream to reality as others have stepped up and shared their hearts in this work and has grown from being the dream of one to the dream of many. I could not be more excited to see how this grows and the shape that it takes in the lives of those that we serve, the support that we can provide, and the long term positive impact we aim to achieve. Thank you for your support. It is with you that we can have an impact in the lives of women, their families, and the next generation.

Warmly,Amy Green

Board Chair Statement

The Rooted Bridge is an organization made up of people who recognize that the mental health of parents impacts the physical and mental health of their children. We strive to improve mental health care access and affordability for parents and parents to be. I personally chose to be involved with The Rooted Bridge because in my profession as an obstetrician/gynecologist I daily interact with women and families with mental health care needs related to pregnancy, infertility and pregnancy loss. The paucity of actual resources and knowledge of those resources that were available in our community for these people was frustrating and infuriating. We aim to change this. Warmly,Dr. Amanda Barrett

Service Categories
Primary Category:	Human Services  - Family Services (Adolescent Parents)
Secondary Category:	Mental Health & Crisis Intervention  - Mental Health & Crisis Intervention NEC
Tertiary Category:	-

Areas Served

Davidson, Tennessee, Southeast US

TN - Davidson