237859 Inwood House continuum of care: An innovative model to improve maternal outcomes for pregnant teens in foster care

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Lisa Lieberman, PhD, CHES , Department of Health and Nutrition Sciences, Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ
Linda Lausell Bryant, MSW , Executive Director, Inwood House, New York, NY
Keneca Boyce, PhD , Inwood House, New York, NY
Kayla Ryan , Department of Health and Nutrition Sciences, Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ
Tahira Randhawa , Department of Health and Nutrition Sciences, Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ
Inwood House (IH) provides residential care for some of NYC's most vulnerable young people: pregnant and parenting teens in foster care. The Teen Family Life Program (TFL) was a set of pregnancy services in a residential setting, along with several unique enhancements: career planning; peer mentoring; expressive therapies; and a mental health support group. The study compared IH teens (n=85) with those at another NYC foster care residence (n=75), which offered the same core services without the enhancements. By their babies' birth, IH, teens showed significant improvement in the quality of their relationships, the AAPI parenting scale and a range of emotional health outcomes, directly related to program dosage, Six and twelve months postpartum, 85% of IH teen moms had a job and/or were in school; 96% maintained custody of their babies, and 90-100% of the babies were fully immunized. In seeking to further improve birth outcomes, reduce second pregnancies, and strengthen vulnerable adolescent families, IH is currently enrolling teens into a federally funded randomized controlled study, to test two additional enhancements: doula services for labor, birth, and breastfeeding support; and the intensive SPIN Home Video Training parenting program. IH's residential services enable access to a wide variety of comprehensive services, professionals, and role models for their vulnerable and challenged pregnant teen clients. IH's enhanced services contributed to greater gains for the pregnant teens over the core services alone and a rigorous design is testing the added value of doulas and parenting support.

Learning Areas:
Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Public health or related organizational policy, standards, or other guidelines

Learning Objectives:
By the end of the session, participants will be able to: Explain how a long-term continuum of services for pregnant and parenting teens, residing in residential care facilities, impacts on their birth outcomes, mental health, education, employment, and parenting success; Discuss the role of doulas for labor, birth, and breastfeeding support to improve pregnancy and maternal and baby outcomes

Keywords: Pregnancy Outcomes, Adolescents

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: Dr. Lisa Lieberman conducted the evaluation research for this Federally-funded demonstration project for Inwood House, including all survey development and data analysis. Dr. Lieberman is Assistant Professor of Public Health at Montclair State University, in New Jersey and an active and long-time member of APHA.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

See more of: Adolescent Health Poster Session
See more of: Maternal and Child Health