MCH Leaders in the Southeast: Louisiana

Our other featured leader from Louisiana is Joan Wightkin, DrPH, Assistant Professor, Department of Community and Behavioral Health at Louisiana State University-School of Public Health and she's the Coordinator of the Inter-pregnancy Care-Birth Outcomes Project.

How long have you been in your current position?

I’ve been the Coordinator of the Inter-pregnancy Care with the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals’ Birth Outcome Initiative for one year.

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

After serving as Louisiana’s Title V-Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Director for 26 years addressing the vast health needs of reproductive age women, infants and children, I enjoy focusing on one very important period of a woman’s life course: inter-pregnancy.  In the latter part of my time as MCH Director, we began to shift our women’s health focus from the prenatal period to include pre/inter-conception. My current role brings me closer to the primary care providers and Healthy Start case managers who are the backbone of our inter-pregnancy care (IPC) project. Linking primary care medical providers with Healthy Start case managers adds a strong focus on the social determinants of health.  I am also closely involved in the evaluation of our IPC project.  It’s satisfying to move from MCH system- building at the state level, to system-building in the New Orleans community where I live.

What is your biggest challenge?

Showing improvements in the physical and psychosocial health of our target population of high risk women who recently delivered a preterm or low birth weight baby through our intervention is our biggest challenge and goal.

Why are you involved in Every Woman Southeast?

It’s exciting to be connected to 8 other states that face similar challenges in addressing the health of women. Learning from those states that have had successes and documented improved outcomes is an important way to help Louisiana’s women and families.  I especially enjoy the focus on consumers and clinical practice and learning from such a dedicated group of professionals.

MCH Leaders in the Southeast: Louisiana

For August we are featuring Louisiana, the most recent state to join Every Woman Southeast! We've asked two MCH leaders in Louisiana our interview questions and their answers reveal a lot about their passion for their work and their state. Our first featured leader from Louisiana is Rebekah Gee MD, MPH, Director of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals’ Birth Outcome Initiative. We interviewed her to find out more about her experience and interest in Every Woman Southeast.

How long have you been in your current position? 

I’ve been in this position 2 years.

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

I most enjoy partnering with the Louisiana health care leaders to improve the health of women and infants. As an obstetrician/gynecologist, I know how necessary and difficult it is to change and improve clinical practice patterns. I have been fortunate to engage the Louisiana leaders of the Department of Health and Hospitals; Louisiana Hospital Association; state Medicaid, Public Health, and Behavioral Health agencies; professional medical associations; and community-based organizations. Working together, both public and private entities, we are solving some of Louisiana’s most persistent barriers to improving birth outcomes.

What is your biggest challenge? 

Louisiana has among the highest rates of poverty and social inequity, and lowest rates of educational attainment. That makes our work that much more important.

Why are you involved in Every Woman Southeast? 

I want to learn from the other states and help diffuse innovation.

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

I would extend the work of Louisiana’s Birth Outcomes Initiative for another year in order to fully institutionalize our projects focused on 1) Safety and Quality Improvement in Birthing Hospitals, 2) Pre/Interconception Care, 3) Prenatal Behavioral Health Screening/Treatment, 4) Ending Non-Medically Indicated Deliveries Prior to 39 Weeks Gestation, and 5) Louisiana Report Card for Maternity and NICU Care.

We're on Pinterest

Every Woman Southeast is working to build up our social media presence. We've recently joined one of the hottest social media sites, Pinterest. What is Pinterest you ask? If you don’t know, then you MUST check it out. In fact, here are some top reasons why WOMEN love Pinterest.

Why is Pinterest so addictive?

1. The simple design is easy to use and the focus on attractive images allows you to quickly scroll through content.
2. Pinboards satisfy the desire to hoard images and content from the Internet in an organized way.
   
   
3. Pinterest allows users to share less personal content so there is no need to worry about privacy.
   
   
4. The possibility of creating a visually stimulating pinboard offers an element of excitement!

To see the infographic, visit http://columnfivemedia.com/work-items/flowtown-infographic-why-is-pinterest-so-addictive/.

Network Mapping

Over the next few weeks, we will be working with the State Teams to develop network maps. These maps will show the nodes (people, groups, and organizations) that each State Team is connected to. Nodes are connected by links, which can be relationships, flows, or transactions. In order to develop these maps, we will ask team members where they get ideas and expertise, who they collaborate with, what listservs they receive, and who they disseminate information to.

These maps will allow us to visually track our links and design strategies to fill in gaps. Once the maps have been developed we can ask if the right connections are in place, if there are any key connections missing, and which links need to be strengthened. Several studies have shown a coalition or organization’s level of connectedness to be associated with productivity. Kegler, Steckler, McLeroy & Malek (1998) conducted an analysis of 10 cancer prevention coalitions. They found that the quality of communication among members and staff was associated with the number of activities executed. In a more recent study, Wells et al. (2006) found that extensive partner outreach and development allowed a coalition to engage in more interventions and reach more people than a comparable coalition with lower relational capacity. Building these networks is crucial to the success of Every Woman Southeast but before we can strengthen our networks, we need to find out where we currently stand. Check out our Resources section if you are interested in learning more about network mapping.

Resources:
For more information on network mapping and the benefits of partnering, check out these great articles!

• Valdis Krebs is an expert on social networking and founder of orgnet.com, which provides social network analysis software and services. Along with June Holley and Jack Ricchiuto, he maintains a blog that features case examples and applications of network weaving. The blog can be found at networkweaver.blogspot.com.
  
• Kegler MC, STeckler A, McLeroy K, Malek SH. Factors that contribute to effective community health promotion coalitions: A study of 10 project ASSIST coalitions in North Carolina. Health Education & Behavior. 1998; 25(3): 338-353.
  
• Krebs V & Holley J. Building smart communities through network weaving. Appalachian Center for Economic Networks.Retrieved from www.acenetworks.org. 2006.
  
• Wells R, Ford EW, McClure JA, Holt ML, Ward A. Community-based coalitions’ capacity for sustainable action: The role of relationships. Health Education & Behavior. 2007;34(1):124-139.

MCH Leaders in the Southeast: Kentucky

This July we're featuring the Bluegrass state: Kentucky! We've asked three MCH leaders in Kentucky our interview questions and their answers reveal a lot about their passion for their work and their state. Our first featured leader is Emily Adkins, RN, Nurse Consultant for Family Planning and Preconception Health at the Division of Women's Health, Department for Public Health, Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services.

How long have you been in your current position?   

I joined the Kentucky Division of Women’s Health two years ago (in March of 2010) in my current role as nurse consultant for the Family Planning Program, as well as the Preconception Care and Folic Acid Programs.

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

I enjoy opportunities to interact with and educate the public about Preconception Care (including Family Planning and Folic Acid Supplementation) through health fairs and other venues. I feel a great sense of satisfaction when I get a phone call from someone looking for information and resources and I am able to assist them getting the help they need in their community.

What is your biggest challenge? 

As I am sure it is with everyone, time and funding are the biggest challenges. Trying best to determine how to use the time and resources available is a daunting task.

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

I am proud to be a southern woman. I truly believe women are the heart of our communities and the health and well being of each woman is vital to the health and well being of our communities. I think we can make the biggest difference in the overall health of our children and neighborhoods by starting with the women who are the core of the families within our region.

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

I really wish I had a good answer, or at least a witty response – but I don’t. I am more aware than ever that money does not go as far as it seems it should. I definitely feel the money would be best used to educate all Kentuckians about the importance of women’s health and steps to take to achieve and maintain it.

MCH Leaders in the Southeast: Kentucky

Another featured leader from Kentucky is Susan Holland Brown, Kentucky’s Statewide Folic Acid Campaign Coordinator, Registered Nurse, Childbirth Educator, Board Certified Lactation Consultant, Grief Counselor, MCH Nurse Consultant, & Co-Author Kentucky Healthy Babies are Worth the Wait Toolkit. We interviewed her to find out more about her experience and interest in Every Woman Southeast.

How long have you been in your current position?

Twenty-two years in public health as an MCH nurse, childbirth educator, lactation consultant, and grief counselor; and 12 years as Kentucky’s Statewide Folic Acid Campaign Coordinator for the Kentucky’s Folic Acid Partnership (KFAP).

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

I like that all of my jobs revolve around women and the families they nurture.

What is your biggest challenge?

As a nurse and public health professional I’m used to multitasking and juggling priorities but in recent years TIME is what I really miss! Like everyone there’s always too much to do and too little time to do it in… and never any down time to catch up, but friends call that job security and I call it LIFE!  

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

I spent 10 years of my nursing career working OB at Salem Hospital in Salem Oregon where I saw childbearing-aged women living a different culture than the women in the Southeast were living at the time. Everyone gave birth naturally with only a few exceptions of those women who truly needed a cesarean birth and of those who did—most gave birth via VBAC the next time around; and everyone breastfed their babies! I learned so much from that positive environment and with my youngest two daughters being born there I got to experience firsthand just how incredible and empowering natural birth can be. It was a life-changing experience that I have never forgotten and I wish women in the Southeast could experience that same type of environment!

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

I’ve always said in my childbirth classes that if I ever won the lottery I would use the money to go around and bribe all the OBs to not tell women in the early stages of labor that they were in labor because of the way it affects their whole mindset when they hear those words—suddenly feeling each and every twinge when previously they were just fine and would probably have sped right through those 8 hours of early labor without skipping a beat, had nothing been said! Of course, everyone always laughs but there is sincerity in my desire. Why don’t we pay more attention to how our words and actions affect women and their pregnancy outcomes?

MCH Leaders in the Southeast: Kentucky

A native of Campbellsville, Kentucky, Connie Gayle White M.D. is a Clinical Professor in the Department for Health Behavior at the College of Public Health, University of Kentucky. She serves as a Women’s Health Consultant to the Kentucky Department of Public Health, the Kentucky Cancer Consortium and the Kentucky Maternal Child Health Institute at the University. Her teaching responsibilities involve classes in the MCHI and UK College of Medicine. She is the former Director of the Division of Women’s Health in the Department for Public Health. Prior to coming to the Division of Women’s Health Dr. White had been a practicing obstetrician/gynecologist for over 20 years in Frankfort, Kentucky. She is a graduate of Kentucky Wesleyan College with a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry. She received a Master of Science in Toxicology and worked as a researcher in Teratology at the National Center for Toxicological Research in Little Rock, Arkansas. She later attended medical school at the University of Kentucky. She completed her OB-GYN residency program at the University of Louisville. She is board certified in OB/GYN by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology. A special emphasis of her work was patient education and preventive medical care.

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 practiced medicine for 20 years (OB/GYN) in Frankfort, KY before coming into Public Health. When I joined EWSE I was the Director of the Division of Women’s Health for the Commonwealth of Kentucky. This involved the Title X program, teen pregnancy prevention and the Breast and Cervical Cancer Screening Program. After two years, I moved to my current position as a Clinical Professor in the College of Public Health at the University of Kentucky for the past year. I have the independence to participate in projects that relate to women’s health: Cervical Cancer-Free Kentucky, Kentucky Cancer Consortium, co-teaching classes and working as a Women’s Health Consultant with the Kentucky Department for Public Health.

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

Instead of dealing with women’s health issues on a one-on-one basis with an individual patient as I did in my medical practice, I now feel my work reaches across the Commonwealth to all Kentucky women. Not being limited to a defined job description, I can pick the projects that interest me and be flexible for my family (after 20 years of clinical medicine, they deserve that!).

What is your biggest challenge? 

Pacing myself to not take on too many projects so I can do my job completely and to my own personal high standards.

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

I find the idea of pooling our best thoughts and actions to allow each state to ‘borrow shamelessly’ from each other will allow better things to happen in our Region IV. Our data shows, and I saw firsthand in clinical practice, the misery of short intraconception time, repeat high risk pregnancies and the total lack of a reproductive life plan (mainly because they didn’t understand they had that right!).

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

Fund some of the desperately needy non-profits that I work with that provide critical needs for patients that fall through the cracks of our society (i.e. summer camp for children/siblings with cancer, navigation system that just provided a soft mattress for a Stage IV breast cancer patient that asked to die in comfort, etc.). I would also provide myself all the yarn I needed to knit up all the community/church projects that I want to share with others!