Maternal and Infant Vitality Initiative

Learn about how Public Health's Maternal and Infant Vitality Initiative connects pregnant mothers connect with resources in Montgomery County with Johnje Jasper, Maternal and Child Health Navigation Supervisor.

Public Health - Dayton & Montgomery County
937-225-5700

Transcript

Announcer
Welcome to Public Health Care's a podcast produced by Public Health Dayton and Montgomery County and dedicated to keeping all of Montgomery County, Ohio, a healthy, safe and thriving community.


Dan Suffoletto
thank you for joining us for today's episode of Public Health Cares, where we explore stories and strategies to help shape a healthier Montgomery County. I'm your host, Dan Suffoletto public information manager. And today we will hear from Johne Jasper, maternal and child Health navigation supervisor, in our Maternal and Infant Vitality Initiative.


Dan Suffoletto
Wow, that's a lot there. But we're going to we're going to break that down here and make it simple for everybody to understand. Thank you for joining us here today.


Dan Suffoletto
today we're going to be discussing the Maternal and Infant Mortality Initiative. And it's a program dedicated to reducing infant mortality and improving birth outcomes in Montgomery County.


Dan Suffoletto
And we're going to discover how this initiative addresses racial disparities, supports families through neighborhood navigators, and builds community partnerships to create lasting change. So, Jenny, again, thank you for joining us.


Johnje Jasper
Absolutely. Thank you for having me today, Dan.


Johnje Jasper
let's go ahead and just get started with a little bit of a background here about the whole initiative. What kind of inspired the creation of the initiative?


Johnje Jasper
Sure. So originally our program was grant funded by the Ohio Department of Health, and it's been around for over ten years now.


Johnje Jasper
It is change. We're actually under the Ohio Department of Children and Youth, but ultimately it's because state wants to recognize the counties who have the highest disparities in birth outcomes between African American moms and their Caucasian counterparts. And so the state has done the research and looked at the data, and they chose the top ten counties in this state that had over 80% of the highest infant mortality rates in the state.


Johnje Jasper
Specifically for African-American infants. And they really wanted to help address that. So they created what was formerly known as the Ohio Equity Institute and then initiative, and is now the Maternal and Infant Vitality Initiative, really, to help our pregnant and postpartum moms get connected to resources in the community that can help alleviate any barriers they may face in order to sustain a healthy pregnancy and ensure their their child reaches age one.


Dan Suffoletto
And when we talk about barriers and the things that people have to overcome to to stay healthy, not just with pregnancies, but just health in general, when we address those things, that's something that helps everybody, whether you're pregnant or not, no matter what your situation is, these underlying conditions that we're working on will ultimately filter down and help the whole population.


Dan Suffoletto
So let's talk a little bit about what are some of those, those big things that are an issue that that we're working on.


Dan Suffoletto
Absolutely. And I'm really glad that you brought that up, because everybody who is here on this planet is here because they were born where they had to come from somewhere. And so we have to make sure that they have the best chance.

Johnje Jasper
Everybody has the best chance of life. And so that doesn't just mean for us providing baby items like helping having families with diapers and wipes, bottles and baby clothes, which we do. We also have an emphasis on safe sleep, which we refer to our internal program cribs for kids all the time, for the pack employees and really the education.


Johnje Jasper
And we also help with any other social determinant or need that they may have,


Johnje Jasper
Right. So that could include housing that could include help with alleviating transportation barriers, up with finding childcare that the parent tries. We also help refer to other parenting classes to help give our families the skills that they need to successfully not only raise the child physically, but with the sense your, emotional skills as well.


Johnje Jasper
We also help connect them to home visiting programs where they're other community health workers who can go into the homes and meet with the families, and help continue with those needs. But the great thing that that our program offers, that most other programs don't is our focus on outreach. We want to find the moms as soon as we can in their pregnancies, to help them connect to these resources.


Johnje Jasper
We're not necessarily looking for the moms who are already enrolled in the program, but we want to find the people who don't know about them so that we can be a first step. Once you find out that you're pregnant, we can kind of open the doors of all the other supportive organizations that we have in the area so that that mom can feel supported, and they will make sure to get everything that they need.


Dan Suffoletto
And we have a group here internally at Public Health that we call the neighborhood navigators and tell us how many navigators do we have? First of all. So our team specifically with maybe is three, but we have a total of six and our maternal and child health department. Okay. And what type of work do they do. What specifically is the navigator doing if someone's connected with them?


Johnje Jasper
So our neighborhood navigators as little background for all community health workers, who and most of them are certified community health workers. So what that means is that they can use their lived experience to help share with their client, to kind of walk them through whatever it is that they're going through. Most of our neighborhood navigators are also parents as well, so they understand what it's like, and can empathize with the experience that the client is having.


Johnje Jasper
So they initially do an intake form or a survey or an assessment, whatever you'd like to call it. To really help understand what the parent is going through and to really do an assessment and what what the parent needs. And the unique thing about our navigators is we're not here to tell you what you need, but we're really here to help, guide the parent based on what their goal is.


Johnje Jasper
So if the moms, for example, whose partner is saying that she wants to attend more prenatal appointments and that she wants to gather some baby items before the child is born, that's what we're going to help her with. The other unique thing that I really appreciate about our navigators is that they're active in the community. They show me community, organizations and different events that are going on and ask me as they can go and share with, the families or if they can actually go and table so that they can tell more people about our program.


Johnje Jasper
A lot of programs will have a specific person to do outreach, but all of our navigators do outreach as well, which is very cool. And other people who are connected with the navigators, are there some common themes or certain things that kind of rise to the top as frequently found barriers, or things that people need to be connected with?


Johnje Jasper
Yes, I'm the first one that I can think of actually, is housing. And it's affordable housing and housing that is safe. For example, one family and one home that has access all the things they need, like running water, an adequate kitchen, and affordable, meaning that it doesn't take a huge percentage of their income. And it's in a desirable location.


Johnje Jasper
So that's a huge thing that we've, we've had, a lot of moms who are not able to have the type of living conditions that they'd like. Another barrier that we found is transportation. Some individuals don't have licenses. Some have issues with their cars. That they're not able to afford to take care of. Some aren't able to afford to put gas in because they have to spend so much money on other bills.


Johnje Jasper
And some have difficulty taking themselves and their children on the bus, which may take multiple hours even to get to one, for an appointment. So we've had a lot of people requesting House of housing help with housing and transportation. Another thing lately that we've heard a lot of is car seats. As we all know, it's required to have a proper car seat installed in a vehicle for a parent to take the child home from the hospital.


Johnje Jasper
For the safety of a child, for the first patient. And a lot of organizations that were previously helping provide those car seats to the families are no longer, doing so at that time, at this time. So we've had a lot of requests for car seats that we've had to, navigate. 

And tell us a little bit about how how is the connection made?


Dan Suffoletto
Are we talking about phone calls, zoom calls, in-person meetings at the group sessions? What type of things are happening there?


Johnje Jasper
Any questions. So we actually have a variety of all those things. Our neighborhood navigation services is our provider mostly over the phone. So our navigator will call or send a text to help schedule that enrollment. And then after that initial enrollment, they'll follow up about once per week for a total of three times. To help make sure that the client is able to access all the barriers that they have or sorry to access all of the services and the resources that we provided and help alleviate any barriers they may have had.


Johnje Jasper
If the person would like we are are we would love to have them come in person so that we can see them. We can connect with them one on one and have that private conversation. However, in person is not required. We are also not a home visiting program, which can provide some more flexibility for individuals who are not looking to have a, community health worker come to their home.


Johnje Jasper
And so most of our services are via phone. We do also have some, programs that we put on. The most recent one, we were doing a financial literacy series, it was our last session actually coming up here in March. And those have been provided in person. And that is just a time. And this this series actually was for both moms and dad.

Johnje Jasper
So we had the whole family, was able to come out wearing information where we went through. We've talked about credit, we've talked about saving, we've talked about budgeting, and a plethora of financial literacy topics. But those were in-person. And then previously during Covid, we've done virtual events and we're also working forward to, doing more virtual events coming up so that we can help be accessible to everybody.


Johnje Jasper
But we really try to make sure that we are getting information out to everybody, and then we're working within the confines of the client's schedules. Okay, that sounds great. And for for everybody listening, we want to remind you we were mentioning events here. If you're interested in these events or any other public health events, we encourage you to follow us on our social media accounts on our Facebook page.


Dan Suffoletto
Public health DMC is our name on Facebook. Also, all of our events are always listed at any time on our website at DMC dawg. So those are two great places to, to follow and to find, not just, events related to the neighborhood navigators, but all of the public health events. We have over 50 different programs of public health, so we pretty much always have something going on for somebody.


Dan Suffoletto
And you never know when you might need one of these programs. You might not be pregnant today, but you might find it tomorrow. So we hey, you want to be you want to be aware. You want to be aware of these things generally so that, when the need arises, you will be able to take full advantage of everything that we have here to offer.


Dan Suffoletto
And we want to leave everybody again with the contact information. What's the your program specific contact? What's the best way to contact you guys? So we have two ways. One is via phone where you can give us a call at (937) 496-7718. And that goes straight to me. And I'll take the individual's information, and put them in our system.


Johnje Jasper
And we'll have our navigators give them a call within a couple business days. And the other way is online. So on our website dmc.org under Programs and Services A to Z, we'll go to em and click on the Maternal and Infant Vitality Initiative on our page. We've got a little bit more information about what we offer. And we also have a link to our, enrollment interest form.


Johnje Jasper
And so anybody can send us information. So it could be for you, your partner, a client or friend. And you send us their information and we will give them a call to tell them about our program and see if they're interested to enroll. Okay. We've had a lot of great information today. We want to thank you for joining us.


Dan Suffoletto
The last bits of wisdom you'd like to leave us with here before we before we wrap it up.


Johnje Jasper
I just wanted to highlight that our program specifically is Vermont, Montgomery County, and that we are looking to get moms as early in their pregnancy as possible. So soon as you get a pregnancy test, you can call us. And then we serve up to when the baby turns 12 months of age, or one. Okay. And then part of the navigation is you can connect people beyond that with other services they may need as well.


Johnje Jasper
Once they're out, once they're out of the program, you can lead them into their next areas. If they need further assistance, correct? Absolutely. We are the first stop. And then we like to call ourselves like the umbrella. So everything else we will go ahead and refer to, to help that mom get connected to whatever resources, pregnancy related or not, they may need.


Dan Suffoletto
Okay. Sounds great. This has been public health cares. I've been your host, Dan Suffoletto on public information manager for Public Health Dayton and Montgomery County. I would like to thank today's guest, Johne Jasper, maternal and Child Health navigation supervisor, in our Maternal and Infant Vitality Initiative, for joining us here today for this very important conversation on maternal and infant health.


Dan Suffoletto
If you'd like to learn more about Maternal and Infant Vitality Initiative or connect with resources, visit phdmc.org Together, we can ensure every baby has the chance to thrive. Until that's time. Stay healthy Montgomery County.


Dan Suffoletto
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Dan Suffoletto
For more information about public health data in Montgomery County, we encourage you to visit our Web site at phdcm.org and be sure to follow us on social media at Public Health DMC.