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332252
Assessing women's healthcare access needs through the Florida Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Program Evaluation


Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Peggy Defay, College of Public Health, Department of Global Health, University of South Florida, Miami, FL
Esther Jean-Baptiste, BS, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, College of Public Health, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL
Pamela Birriel, MPH, Department of Community and Family Health, College of Public Health, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL
Leandra Olson, BS, Department of Community and Family Health, College of Public Health, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL
Stephanie Volpe, BS, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, College of Public Health, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL
Jennifer Marshall, PhD, MPH, Department of Community and Family Health, College of Public Health, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL
     
Background: Individuals with lower socioeconomic status (SES) tend to underutilize healthcare services. Home visiting is one approach to support women in families impacted by SES in their communities. An aim of the Florida Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Program Evaluation is to examine referrals to community resources. This study identifies how home visitors facilitate women’s access to physical and mental healthcare services.

Methods: Interviews with 60 English- and Spanish-speaking women MIECHV participants and focus groups with 81 MIECHV staff examined referrals which led to a subgroup investigation assessing how MIECHV facilitates women’s access to mental health and healthcare services. Qualitative thematic content analysis was conducted independently by two trained research staff, ensuring inter-rater reliability through comparison, discussion and consensus-building.

Results: Preliminary qualitative analysis revealed common themes of unmet need and barriers to healthcare for participants enrolled in the MIECHV Program. In particular, women have high needs for family planning, pre- and post-natal care, mental health services, substance abuse services, and dental care. There is a marked need for community partnerships and continued home visiting support to improve access to physical and mental healthcare for pregnant and mothers of infants and young children.

Conclusion: Since administrators identified mental health and general health as primary needs, further analysis will focus on evaluating mental health and general health care access within their county programs. The Florida MIECHV Program can be employed as a platform to inform public health practitioners on strategies to address health care access amongst high need individuals.

Learning Areas:

Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice
Public health or related research

Learning Objectives:
Identify barriers of access to care among women participating in the Florida Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Program Explore different health services sought by women enrolled in the Florida MIECHV Program Depict knowledge of available healthcare services among women enrolled in the Florida MIECHV Program Assess how the Florida MIECHV Program facilitates access to healthcare services

Keyword(s): Accessibility, Women's Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: My research experience commenced at the undergraduate level and continued post graduation holding a position serving as a research project manager to evaluate federally funded adolescent sex education programming in south central Florida. My experiences also include published works and presentations in mental health and academic ability of minority youth and adolescent sexual health. Currently, I am assisting in the evaluation of state-funded pre- and post-natal home visiting programming in the state of Florida.
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.

Back to: 4383.0: Health Services Research Poster Session