PSI Alliance for POC in partnership with Seleni Institute: Black Perinatal Mental Health Webinar

Note: The webinar is offered in a collaboration between Seleni Institute and PSI’s Alliance for POC. There will not be CEUs or certificates of completion awarded.

Presenter: Dr. Solimar Santiago-Warner, DSW, LCSW, PMH-C

Dr. Solimar Santiago-Warner, DSW, LCSW, PMH-C is a clinician-scholar and trained palliative care social worker specializing in perinatal mental health, perinatal palliative care, reproductive trauma, and grief-informed practice. She is the founder of Solmaterna Psychotherapy & Consulting, serving women and birthing people navigating infertility, life-limiting fetal diagnoses, perinatal loss, and complex reproductive transitions.

She earned her BA from Connecticut College, her MSW from Boston College, and her DSW from NYU Silver School of Social Work. She completed palliative care training through NYU’s Zelda Foster Studies Program in Palliative and End-of-Life Care and maternal mental health training through The Seleni Institute. In addition to her clinical work, she teaches and mentors clinicians, interdisciplinary teams, and doctoral students, serves on professional boards, and has published on perinatal palliative care and reproductive grief.

Description: 

Black birthing people experience significantly higher rates of maternal mortality and maternal mental health challenges compared to their white counterparts. These disparities are influenced by structural racism, systemic inequities in healthcare, and barriers to culturally responsive care.

This webinar explores the impact of implicit bias and systemic inequities on Black perinatal mental health and highlights strategies providers can use to offer more equitable and responsive care.

Participants will gain insight into historical and structural factors shaping maternal health outcomes, learn how bias can influence clinical interactions, and identify practical strategies for supporting Black birthing clients experiencing perinatal mental health distress.

This session is adapted from Seleni Institute’s 6-hour on-demand training of the same title. 

Admission: Free

Learning Objectives: 
After attending this webinar, participants will be able to:

• Identify screening tools and approaches that support Black individuals experiencing perinatal mental health distress.

• Define birth equity and explain why it is essential when working with Black birthing clients.

• Describe the historical context and current role of structural racism in the United States healthcare system.

Language offerings/access:
This presentation is hosted in English with speech-to-text translation from an online platform DeepL available in the following languages:
Chinese (Mandarin), Dutch, English, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, and Ukrainian. 

For questions please contact alliance@postpartum.net.