1 / 31

Infant Mortality and Racial Equity

Infant Mortality and Racial Equity. Peggy Vander Meulen, RN, MSN Michigan Premier Public Health Conference October 12, 2011. Kent County Infant Mortality White, Black & Total - Three Year Averages. Infant Mortality Rate by Race Grand Rapids 2007-2009. Percent Low Birth Weight by Race

kiara-foley
Download Presentation

Infant Mortality and Racial Equity

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Infant Mortality and Racial Equity Peggy Vander Meulen, RN, MSN Michigan Premier Public Health Conference October 12, 2011

  2. Kent County Infant MortalityWhite, Black & Total - Three Year Averages

  3. Infant Mortality Rate by Race Grand Rapids 2007-2009 Percent Low Birth Weight by Race Grand Rapids 2009 (1,000 live births)

  4. Community Response

  5. Strong Beginnings Funded in 2004 by a federal Healthy Start grant, Strong Beginnings is a community-wide effort to lower infant mortality among the African-American population in Grand Rapids

  6. Cherry Street Health Services (St. Mary’s Health Care) Grand Rapids African American Health Institute Healthy Kent 2020 – Infant Health Implementation Team Kent County Health Department Metro Health Hospital Arbor Circle Spectrum Health MOMS The Salvation Army A Partnership of….

  7. Program Participants • African-American women • Pregnant • Mother of a child under 2 • Capacity to enroll 280 women at any one time • 1,800 families enrolled to date (80% high risk)

  8. Infant Health I-Team Structure • The I-team serves as the: • Community Coalition for Strong Beginnings • Community Action Team for FIMR • Advisory Board for Nurse-Family Partnership Healthy Kent 2020

  9. Strong Beginnings and IHIT Goals • Reduce overall infant mortality in Kent Co. • Low birth weight & premature delivery • SUID and sleep-related asphyxia • Eliminate racial disparities • Improve overall system of care

  10. Internalized Racism • Help women cope with the effects of internalized racism: • Poor self-image • Stress • Anger • Depression

  11. Internalized Racism • Frequent home visits by CHWs • Social support, education and goal-setting • “Finding the Gold Within” (self-worth, self-determination, hope for better future)

  12. Internalized Racism • Mental Health Services: • Crisis management • Individual counseling • Six-week therapeutic support groups on stress, depression & anger mgt • Healthy Minds & Bodies

  13. Internalized Racism • Parenting from an African American perspective (EBP) • Builds confidence in parenting skills • Develops pride in African American heritage • Helps raise strong, confident children

  14. Internalized Racism • Asked FIMR to add questions regarding women’s experience of discrimination • Measure participants’ satisfaction with cultural appropriateness of services and the treatment received from staff

  15. Individually-mediated Racism • Helped develop a Cultural Competency Curriculum for Health Care Professionals • Held 12 trainings (5 weeks) • Trained 7 facilitators • Reached >1200 professionals from 37 agencies • Made curriculum available statewide through MALPH

  16. Individually-mediated Racism • “Creating Inclusive Health Care Environment” workshops for 50 providers • Follow-up online survey on behavioral change

  17. Individually-mediated Racism • Community presentations on link between racism & racial disparities in birth outcomes, e.g.: • Unnatural Causes • 1-hour radio interview • Nursing & SW students • Family Practice Residents • Churches • Community Summit

  18. Institutional Racism • Created Health Care Sector for the Summit on Racism • Round-table discussions on recruitment & retention of employees of color in leadership • Staff attend 2 ½ days workshops

  19. Institutional Racism • Infant Mortality Summit in Grand Rapids,150 participants: 75 community residents and 75 agency reps. • One message: “Create a mechanism to report poor quality care and discrimination in health care based on race or ethnicity”

  20. Institutional Racism • Research and literature review • Focus Groups • Key Informant Interviews • Produced report and recommendations for developing an external reporting system

  21. Key Components of Reporting System

  22. Institutional Racism • GRACE – PRFC conducts assessments for orgs seeking racism-free credentialing (2008) • Documentation to meet criteria for 6 standards, e.g., leadership engagement, internal policies, contractor / vendor practices, external relations

  23. Institutional Racism • Teams meet with agency staff • Review documents • Deliberation team assigns status: • Not at this time, Provisional, Full, Credentialed • Make recommendations, develop action plan

  24. Institutional Racism • Three pilot agencies 2009 • Five organizations 2010-2011 • Five organizations starting 2011-2012

  25. Institutional Racism • Member PRIME workgroup • PEDIM ALC – to increase capacity at community, state & national levels to address impact of racism on birth outcomes & MCH

  26. Next Steps • R2R creating toolkits for providers & consumers: • Hidden bias tests • Organizational assessments • Local resources • Patient rights • Empowerment cards

  27. Next Steps • Continue offering ½ day workshops • Train new staff as assessors for PRFC • Increase number of organizations seeking racism-free credentialing

  28. Next Steps • Pursue mechanism for reporting discrimination • Create local action plan based on learnings from PEDIM-ALC experts & teams

  29. Next Steps • “Lines: The Lived Experience of Race” by Stephanie Sandberg • Video Clips & Facilitator guide to raise awareness & foster dialogue

  30. THANK YOU! Supported in part by project H49MC03591from the Maternal & Child Health Bureau (Title V, Social Security Act), Health Resources & Services Administration, Dept. of Health & Human Services

  31. Contact Information Peggy Vander Meulen Program Director Strong Beginnings (federally-funded Healthy Start) (616) 331-5838 peggy.vandermeulen@spectrumhealth.org Barb Hawkins-Palmer, BA Executive Director Healthy Kent 2020 (616) 632-7181 barb.hawkins-palmer@kentcountymi.gov

More Related