141st APHA Annual Meeting

In This section

294606
Reaching equitable birth outcomes through healthy start

Tuesday, November 5, 2013 : 1:10 PM - 1:20 PM

Fleda Mask Jackson, PhD, MS , Majaica, LLC/Save 100 Babies, Atlanta, GA
Arden Handler, DrPH , Community Health Sciences, University of Illinois School of Public Health, Chicago, IL
Milton Kotelchuck, MPH, PhD, MA , MGH Center for Child and Adolescent Health Policy, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
Joanne Martin, DrPH, RN, FAAN , School of Nursing, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN
Sara Shields , Family Center of Worchester, University of Massachusetts, Worchester, MA
Ruth Ann Shepherd, MD, FAAP , Division of Maternal Child Health, Kentucky Department for Public Health, Frankfort, KY
Over twenty years ago, the Congress authorized Healthy Start as a program designed to reduce the rate of infant mortality and to improve perinatal health in locations with the highest rates of infant mortality. The program has grown from the original 15 grantees to 104 sites nationally that currently serve 36,000 women, babies, and their fathers operating in urban, rural, and border communities. The overwhelming majority enrolled in Healthy Start is African American, Hispanic, or Native American. The core services include outreach and recruitment, case management, depression screening and referral, and interconceptual care. Additionally, Healthy Start sites engage in building consortium for developing local action plans, sustainability measures and collaboration, and coordination with Title V. The USDHHS Secretary's Advisory Committee on Infant Mortality (SACIM) recommends that HHS supports and transforms the federal Healthy Start program as a priority initiative to maximize its potential to reduce infant mortality, eliminate disparities, and increase health equity. Additional recommendations are; 1) to implement new performance standards, evidence-based, (practice-based) interventions, and systems-based strategies, 2) to use HS grantees as a hub for new place-based initiatives, and 3) to use an interagency collaborative model to address the social determinants by investing in multiple programs including Healthy Start.

Learning Areas:
Social and behavioral sciences

Learning Objectives:
Identify the ways in which Healthy Start, a national community-based, patient driven, culturally competent program has successfully addressed the racial and ethnic disparities in the health of mothers and babies from under resourced communities. Explain the promising practices for Healthy Start in addressing the psychosocial and determinant risks through its emphasis on empowerment and equity as the basis for advancing community resourcefulness and individual resilience across the life course. Identify the opportunities for the growth and development of Healthy Start as a hub for placed-based initiatives attuned to meeting the health care, psychosocial, and determinant needs of women, families, and infants across the life course.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: As the President of the Majaica, LLC/Save 100 Babies, I have considerable experience on issues related to equitable birth outcomes through Healthy Start initiatives.
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.