MCH Leaders in the Southeast: Mississippi

For May we are featuring Mississippi. One of our featured leaders is Connie Bish, MS, PhD, MPH, State MCH Epidemiologist. Connie was happy to answer a few questions about her work and why she is involved with Every Woman Southeast.

How long have you been in your current position?

I started my position as the CDC assigned State MCH Epidemiologist in October 2009.

What is your favorite thing/task/part of your work?

Seeing that “Ah ha” moment when folks comprehend that human life is not segmented into funding silos but rather human life is integrated not only within a person but within their family, their community, their state, their country. In addition to being a Nutrition/Chronic Disease and Reproductive Health Epidemiologist, I am trained in Animal Husbandry and Poultry Science – agriculture. In agriculture, we know that the genetic potential of the seed is influenced by its ancestral seed stock, AND, the fertility of the soil where it is planted, the abundance or scarcity of water (usually rain), the supplemental nutrition added to less fertile soils (fertilizer), the protection from deadly risks (e.g., bugs, weeds, predatory plants and animals (think Kudzu!) through herbicides, pesticides, fencing or just good rotation cropping. So I have always understood the influence across the lifecourse – that is how agriculturalists think. I get excited when people schooled in the segmentation of public health programs suddenly understand the breadth of influence on human health, and then start to work toward integration. So I guess I get excited when human health folks start thinking like farmers!!

What is your biggest challenge?

Lack of funding is big. However, a lack of willingness to try a change, embrace a new concept, even if it results in failure or less than optimal results, is a barrier/challenge that is much harder to get past. At least with a willingness to try, creative ideas might find money or find synergy or find partners for create Win Win situations. But nothing happens when there is no willingness to try – money or no money!

Why are you involved in Every Woman Southeast?

Mississippi women of reproductive age do not have the best health. There are areas of MS where 74% of women ages 18-44 are overweight or obese, compared to 50.5% for 46 U.S. states (minus, MS, LA, AR, TN: source unpublished BRFSS data that compares MS Delta to the non-Delta US states). Hearing what other states are doing with regard to preconception health will hopefully provide ideas and strategies to further incorporate preconception health awareness and counseling into health department programs and general population education.

If you had a million dollars what would you do with it?

I have learned that a million dollars does not go far, so I would want to find a way to grow the money then use it to enhance education. I would want to find a way to have education be the most revered pursuit of all people, families, communities and the state. I would want the population to learn critical thinking skills that would help with the understanding that risk is inherent, but we all have the ability to choose lower risk options – if we know what they are and we feel empowered to make those lower risk chooses. I am pretty sure that 1 million dollars would not go far in the pursuit of increased education status for the population.

MCH Leaders in the Southeast: Florida

For April we are featuring the Sunshine State, Florida. One of our featured leaders is Annette Phelps, ARNP, MSN, Division Director for Family Health Services at Florida Department of Health. Annette was happy to answer a few questions about her work and why she is involved with Every Woman Southeast.

How long have you been in your current position?

I have served as Director of the Division of Family Health Services for the past 10 years. My experience in the central office related to family and community health spans over 20 years and prior to that I worked in a county health department and served as an ARNP there. I also worked as an ARNP in a VA Ambulatory Care Clinic and a College Student Health Service and as an SICU nurse.

What is your favorite thing/task/part of your work?

Every day brings new challenges and opportunities to better serve families. Whether it is prioritizing scarce resources, assessing the needs of our families, creating a new program or adapting or introducing a new program--it is all about the families we serve.

What is your biggest challenge?

Change is the biggest challenge. We want to be evidence based in our approaches but are hesitant to give up old habits and what we "think" in our heart works and also wonder what about the populations that the approaches were not tested on, or what about the strategies that have not yet been tested at the evidence level. Reconciling all of the needs with the best solutions is hard and planning and implementing new approaches or changed approaches takes time and diligence.

Why are you involved in/interested in Every Woman Southeast?

I learn so much from colleagues across the region. It helps with implementing changes to have knowledge of others in regard to challenges and ways around hurdles. The bright ideas and energy are infectious too.

If you had a million dollars what would you do with it? (besides move to the mountains or beach and retire)

It depends on what the source and purpose are. If it is for personal use it would go a long way toward retirement and some special interests for caring for moms and babies. If I had a million program dollars, I would invest in some evaluation activities to try and build the evidence base on some of our state programs.

To find out more about what is happening in Florida, visit everywomansoutheast.org/partners/florida.

Camellia Project Provides Education, Support to High-Risk Postpartum Moms

High-risk postpartum mothers are receiving inter-conceptional education and support through the Camellia Project, a pilot program funded by the March of Dimes, Florida Chapter, in northeast Florida.  The project provides curriculum-based group activities and individual support to mothers who have had a fetal or infant loss, or a baby hospitalized in the NICU.  It offers an inter-conceptional intervention for  addressing maternal risk factors that could impact a subsequent pregnancy in this high risk group.

Project interventions include:  1) initial support for mothers in the NICU, follow-up and engagement post-discharge; 2) facilitation of post-partum health care, including family planning; 3) provision of education and support through group activities; and 4) follow-up and linkage to other needed services in the community. The Camellia Project utilizes an adaptation of the inter-conceptional curriculum developed for the Magnolia Project, a successful federal Healthy Start initiative being implemented in the urban core of Jacksonville. Group activities include six sessions that focus on goal setting, chronic disease and associated risk factors, baby spacing and family planning; stress, and the benefits of healthy eating, multivitamin consumption and physical activity.

In two years, 180 women have been served by the project with 77 completing the intervention. Preliminary evaluation results indicate the project has successfully increased participant knowledge through the educational session and positively impacted their intent to adhere to five of eight healthy behaviors.  Based on one- and four-month follow-up, exercise, contraceptive use, healthy diet, reduced smoking and improved problem solving increased following participation in the program. Only two of the participants (2.6%) have become pregnant again within a year. Stress and depression were also lowered for participants after the group activities; however levels appear to increase at the one- and four-month follow-up.  The most important impact of the program has been increasing the social supports provided by the women themselves. Follow-up interviews with initial participants reveal that lasting friendships have been formed among group members. During the group activities, mothers provided support to one another, offering resources and guidance based on their own knowledge and experience.  The mothers are particularly appreciative  for the opportunity to interact with other mothers who understand what they are going through with  a baby in the NICU.

The Camellia Project is one of three demonstrations projects funded by the March of Dimes, Florida Chapter targeting a statewide priority to develop Comprehensive Inter-conception Health Services for High-risk Women. Women who have experienced a poor birth outcome are at highest risk of a poor outcome in their next pregnancy. The Florida chapter is also funding an evaluation of the demonstration projects to identify best practices for a model inter-conceptional intervention.  The Camellia Project is being implemented by the Northeast Florida Healthy Start Coalition, Inc. For more information visit: http://nefhealthystart.org/for-women/camelia-project/.

MCH Leaders in the Southeast: Florida

Another one of our featured leaders from Florida is Lori Reeves, MPH, Program Services Director at the Florida Chapter of the March of Dimes. Lori thoughts about her work and why she is involved with Every Woman Southeast are below.

How long have you been in your current position?

I have been in my current position as state program director for 12 years and with the March of Dimes for 17 years.

What is your favorite thing/task/part of your work?

I really enjoy working with partners on high-impact initiatives.

What is your biggest challenge?

Finding enough time!

Why are you involved in/interested in Every Woman Southeast?

I love the synergy of working with a passionate group of people that crosses state lines and disciplines on the common goal of improving health for women across the lifespan. I think there is great power in putting minds together to solve problems, and that with the brainpower and passion of leaders across the Southeast, we have a much greater chance to come up with effective solutions.

If you had a million dollars what would you do with it? (besides move to the mountains or beach and retire)

Well, that would depend on whether it was mine personally or mine for work! If it were for work, I would put it towards expanding our quality improvement efforts to include a stronger emphasis and post-partum and interconception care, in order to increase the number of women who complete a postpartum visit, improve the content of that visit, and develop a medical home that would keep women connected with providers before, during, and beyond pregnancies.

If it was for me personally, I think it would just pay for college for my kids, and if anything were left, I would put it in a retirement account. I might also consider replacing our 14 year-old car!

To find out more about what is happening in Florida, visit everywomansoutheast.org/partners/florida.To find out about the Florida Chapter of the March of Dimes, visit http://www.marchofdimes.com/florida/.

WISH Media Preference Survey Results

THANK YOU Every Woman Southeast (EWSE) VOLUNTEERS
Every Woman Southeast would like to thank all EWSE members who participated in the Women’s Integrated Systems for Health (WISH) media preference survey. The survey asked about how you receive, share, and find out about learning opportunities and professional training. Your responses will help the WISH team better serve you and your colleagues when advertising about new trainings and generating interest about new topics in women’s healthcare.

WHAT IS WISH?
The WISH project focuses on promoting and integrating the public health community to optimize mental and physical health among adolescents and women of reproductive age. The project has several components to build leadership capacity among public health, mental health, substance abuse, violence prevention and primary care in order to develop more holistic and integrated systems of care. Thank you for taking time to help us deliver better healthcare to women.

RESPONDENT DEMOGRAPHICS
About 70 health professionals completed the survey, the majority of whom identified as Public Health Nurses, Public Health Program Managers, Health Educators, Administrators, Social Workers, Physicians, Epidemiologists, Nurse Practitioners, and Nutritionists. Several respondents also work in the following fields: academia, health policy, midwifery, and community health advocacy.

MEDIA PREFERENCES AND SURVEY RESULTS
Below is a summary table of online mediums EWSE members use to receive information about educational opportunities. 95% of all EWSE respondents indicated that email alerts are a preferable way to receive information, followed by online newsletters and websites. 50% of respondents indicated that listserves are useful when receiving information about training and educational opportunities.

Several EWSE respondents also identified several professional organizations they use to find out about learning opportunities. The majority of EWSE follows indicated the following professional organizations: AMCHP (47%), HRSA (44%), APHA (40%), NACCHO (26%), CityMatCH (27%), and MCH Navigator (25%). Several participants also cited local health departments, CDC, March of Dimes, and ACOG as professional organizations they follow for training and educational information.

The chart below indicates how people share information about educational opportunities with peers and colleagues. 80% of EWSE survey respondents indicated that they used email alerts to share information, followed by websites (35%), listserves (31%), newsletters (30%), and Facebook (23%).

MCH Leaders in the Southeast: Tennessee

This month we are featuring Tennessee. One of our featured leaders is Cynthia Chafin, M.Ed., CHES, Project Director and Consultant, MTSU’s Adams Chair of Excellence in Health Care Services/Center for Health and Human Services, and Community Health Collaboratives, LLC. We recently asked her a few questions about her work and why she is involved with Every Woman Southeast.


How long have you been in your current position?

I have been an independent project director working with multiple grants and organizations since 2000, and incorporated in 2007 as Community Health Collaboratives, LLC. The first grant that I ever worked on was organizing, facilitating, and managing the Tennessee Folic Acid Council activities in 2000. The Council has been active in a variety of folic acid initiatives since its inception, and some of its members have now formed a preconception advisory committee for an upcoming grant focusing on broader preconception health programming. I have managed multiple grants through the work that I do with Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) Center for Health and Human Services since 2003, including S.M.A.R.T. Moms, a five-year prenatal smoking cessation grant that reached over 13,000 pregnant smokers and a grant focusing on SIDs education for WIC patients as well as special programming for pregnant and parenting teens in local high schools. I recently received funding for a second- year project to be implemented on the MTSU campus educating college-age women on preconception health and being aware of how the choices they make now might impact them later in life. The project will use the web, text messaging, and other social media tools as modalities for educating young women on these important areas during 2012/2013. The “Did u Know What’s Good 4 u is Good 4 ur Future Baby” project promises to be exciting, innovative, and engaging to our target audience! In addition to implementing these activities on the MTSU campus, we will be developing a tool kit for other academic institutions across the state to replicate the program on their campuses. The response was overwhelmingly positive during the pilot phase of this project with over 1200 young college women participating in learning activities. I am very excited what we will be able to accomplish through this second year with a broadened scope and mission. I want to thank the March of Dimes for funding both the SMART Moms and "Did u Know" programs.

What is your favorite thing/task/part of your work?

I enjoy working on multiple grants and projects. I never get bored and it never seems ‘routine’ or dull. I find both short term and long term grants equally rewarding.

What is your biggest challenge?

Of course funding is a challenge for most of us. With many of the projects I work on, it isn’t certain whether or not we will have the funding to continue the project long enough to accomplish what we would like to accomplish. Each project is designed with sustainability in mind so that the work can continue even if the funding does not. This also provides a broader reach in that others can carry forward the work that has already been done and create a multiplying effect, with bigger benefits. Another big challenge is just not having enough time in the day and in the week to do all that I want to do and hope to accomplish. It’s hard to change the world, but it’s possible to change one small corner of each individual’s world if they find something that they are passionate about and pursue it, with the goal of making a difference through positive change. While I don’t expect to solve all of the world’s public health issues, it’s nice to feel like I can make a difference even though I wish I had more hours in the day and week to do it.

Why are you involved in/interested in Every Woman Southeast?

Every Woman Southeast provides an opportunity for partnerships and relationships with professionals who face the same public health issues that we face here in Tennessee. Historically, Tennessee has not fared well in many areas, and the other states involved in Every Woman Southeast face some of these same issues and really ‘get’ the challenges that we face. We all learn so much from each other and the benefits of collaboration are invaluable. From the webinars to blogs to the opportunities to collaborate together on grant opportunities, Every Woman Southeast provides a great way of communicating with and learning from others who really understand our public health issues and concerns and who are equally passionate about improving the health status of their states.

If you had a million dollars what would you do with it?

I would definitely continue working as a public health professional, as public health is my passion and my calling. I would probably pay off bills and expenses, splurge a bit for my children and husband, and divide some of the remainder between all of the different organizations that fund projects that I work on, since the issues we are trying to tackle are immense and never seem to have enough resources. I’d also fund an animal welfare project!



To find out more about Chafin's work visit http://www.communityhealthcollaboratives.com/index.asp. You can also visit http://www.mtsu.edu/achcs/about_chair.shtml. To find out more about what is happening in Tennessee, visit everywomansoutheast.org/partners/tennessee.

MCH Leaders in the Southeast: Tennessee

Another one of month's featured leaders from Tennessee is Kimberlee Wyche-Etheridge, MD, MPH, Director, Bureau of Family, Youth and Infant Health at the Metro Nashville Davidson County Public Health Department. She  recently answered her a few questions about her work and why she is involved with Every Woman Southeast.

How long have you been in your current position?

Ten years

What is your favorite thing/task/part of your work?

My favorite part of the job is looking for new and innovative ways to address and solve old problems, as well as the honor I have to work with the community and colleagues on the National MCH stage.

What is your biggest challenge?

Using a quote I heard earlier this month, my biggest challenge is, “Those who represent the corporate immune system whose job it is to kill anything different or new.”

Why are you involved in/interested in Every Woman Southeast?

I believe that change and improvement cannot happen in a silo. We must work together, share resources as well as successes and failures in order to create a movement of improved health for women and families across the South.

If you had a million dollars what would you do with it? 

I would set up a scholarship system so that every baby born in high risk areas was set up with a college savings account so that as they grew, they would understand that the community cared enough about him/her, and believed in him/her so much that this account was started, and in return the expectation is for high school graduation, college and greatness on behalf of the communities that need their help.

To find out more about what is happening in Tennessee, visit everywomansoutheast.org/partners/tennessee.