Health Equity

Health Equity is a fundamental strategy, focused on achieving equity across the state in identified areas of health disparity. These services target the most vulnerable populations in the state, requiring the collaboration of several parties to make an impactful change.  

Example Services

• School-Based Telehealth
• Women’s Reproductive Behavioral Health 
• Medication Assisted Treatment Telehealth (Tele-MAT) 
• Maternal Fetal Medicine 
• Health Care for the Homeless 
• Pediatric Intensive Care Telehealth 
• Trauma Resilience and Recovery Program 

Statewide Reproductive Tele-Behavioral Health Programs

One in five people will experience a Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorder (PMAD) or Perinatal Substance Use Disorder (PSUD) over the course of pregnancy and the postpartum year. Suicide and drug overdose combine to constitute the leading cause of maternal mortality during the postnatal year.*

The Medical University of South Carolina’s (MUSC)  Mom’s IMPACTT (Improving Access to Maternal Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Care Through Telehealth) Program addresses the critical need for accessible perinatal behavioral health care by utilizing telehealth to provide care to those who are pregnant, within 12 months postpartum, as well as tele-mentoring to any health care provider caring for these patient types.  Learn how to enroll. 

• Patients reached in all 46 SC counties! 
• 96% of inquiries came from patients residing in fully medically underserved areas.  
• Nearly 60% of patients treated were insured by South Carolina Medicaid. 

MUSC’s Listening to Women – Technology Assisted Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) employs a technology-assisted screening tool to identify and refer peripartum women with mental health disorders or substance use disorders to treatment. A recent study found that racial disparities usually seen with the in-person administration of screening and referral to treatment were not seen with the technology-assisted screening.**

• Black women were 5 times more likely to receive mental health treatment with the asynchronous, technology-assisted LTW SBIRT than Black women who received the screening in person. 

South Carolina’s School-based Telehealth network brings care to students while at school, helping students and parents avoid missing school and work to travel to an appointment elsewhere.  

• 203 schools throughout 31 counties of SC utilize School-based Telehealth 
• New in 2023! MUSC implemented the first phase of a statewide school behavioral health telehealth program. The program went live in 15 schools during the year with robust expansion planned in 2024. 

* Mom’s IMPACTT: Improving Access to Maternal Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Care Through Telemedicine and Tele-Mentoring. MUSC Health | Charleston SC. (n.d.). Retrieved from: https://muschealth.org/medical-services/womens/reproductive-behavioral-health/moms-impactt  

** Guile C, Maldonado L, Simpson AN, Newman R, King C, Cortese B, Quigley E, Dietrich N, Kerr A, Aujla R, King K, Ford D, Brady KT. (2021) A Non-Randomized Trial of In-Person Versus Text/Telephone Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment for Pregnant and Postpartum Women. Psychiatric Research and Clinal Practice, 3(4), 172–183. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.prcp.20210027