Online Program

Oral

The Detroit Regional Infant Mortality Reduction Task Force, anchored by an unprecedented partnership of four competing health systems, convened to reduce infant mortality, through the Sew Up the Safety Net for Women and Children (SUSN) program. This session describes three primary strategies to reduce disparities and the confounding social determinants related to infant mortality. 1) Transforming Place: The utilization of community health workers (CHWs) led to nearly zero preventable infant deaths across three vulnerable Detroit neighborhoods. Building upon existing relationships between CHWs with organizations and the community, SUSN links women between disconnected clinical and social services. While SUSN cannot geographically relocate women, through the engagement of CHWs, we are transforming place. Data analysis describes the effectiveness of CHWs in shaping residents’ view of opportunities to thrive and improve birth outcomes. 2) Translating Place: Many providers serving Medicaid populations aren’t familiar with the socially complex challenges of our target population. The Task Force is deploying a CME-approved healthcare equity training that harnesses regional indicators and moves through a case study shifting from theoretical to applicable. The workshop includes discussion and problem solving exercises that foster relationships between health care professionals, promotes communication, and strengthens regional capacity to improve infant survival. Evaluations reveal statistically significant changes in beliefs and intentions to increase quality of care for minority patients. 3) Transcending Place: Community members are engaged through digital tools, promoting preconception, interconception, and prenatal care recommendations. This component focuses on the application of digital outreach and the opportunities for engaging CHWs in communication strategies. Information gathered in focus groups and qualitative interviews informed the decision to position CHWs at the helm of digital outreach. The social marketing campaign allows access to local resources addressing social determinants, supports program goals, and provides engagement of CHWs with a broader audience, regardless of place. The Task Force’s efforts to overcome place-based challenges including understanding women’s framework for pursuing successful birth outcomes; ensuring program sustainability; and pursuing policy and systems level changes is largely contingent on maintaining engagement with diverse stakeholders. The presentation will be undergirded with discussion of strategies for partnerships, ongoing engagement, and collective impact.

Session Objectives: 1. Participants will learn of the success of implementing a community health worker model as a critical link in addressing social determinants as part of the health care delivery process and within the context of place to address infant mortality. 2. Describe components of clinical-community intersections for a model health professions training program to address health inequities in maternal and child health 3. Describe the process of engaging and training community health workers in digital outreach (i.e. social media and text messaging) with the clients they serve.