Project Description:
Description and Features
The Kansas City Healthy Start project addresses the issue of infant mortality in 6 counties in Wyandotte County, Kansas and 9 counties in Jackson County, Missouri. Care Coordination Teams of Family Advocates, Family Support Workers, and Outreach Workers supervised by a Site Coordinator in a community agency setting assist the women with case management, referral/information, and education. The staff work with the women until the child is two years of age. The Maternal and Child Health Coalition of Greater Kansas City provides the consortium for the project and also extensive training for consumers, providers, and professionals.
Institute faculty wrote the original grant(1997) and participated in the writing of competitive grants in 2000, 2005, and 2009. The most recent award was for 5 years (FY 2010-2015). IHD faculty members have provided technical support and have evaluated the project activities with participants and trainees since its inception.
Need
While infant mortality has improved over the past decade, there are pockets of areas where these statistics are quite high. In addition, racial disparity in statistics related to infant births exists, especially related to birth weight.
Outcomes and Benefits
Between 2005-2008, Kansas City Healthy Start served 688 women: 327 pregnant women and 361 infant caregivers. They had a mean age of 24 years, and most (72%) had never been married. They were predominantly African American (65%) or Hispanic (21%), with Spanish the primarly language for 76% of the Hispanic participants. Half (50%) had a high school diploma/GED at enrollment. There were 3 infant deaths to prenatally enrolled women in these 4 years, compared to 200 live births. births to 172 prenatally enrolled women included 85% within normal birth weight, 13% low birth weight, and 2% very low birth weight. Eighty-four percent of 275 enrollees during that time period received prenatal health care during the first trimester.
Kansas City Healthy Start Program Activities 2005-2008:
* Five care coordination teams of Kansas City Healthy Start provide services to 9 zip codes in Jackson County MO and 6 zip codes in Wyandotte County KS, with one team serving the Hispanic population exclusively and one team focusing on mental health needs of all participants. Each team subcontracts to provide case management services to at least 75 families per year (with families eligible for 2 years of support).
During 2005-2008:
* Healthy Start advocates had 7,816 face-to-face visits with 603 women in the program.
* These medical appointments were kept: 1,216 prenatal care visits, 203 postnatal visits, 506 healthy woman visits, and 13 adolescent visits, along with 642 family planning sessions and 1,792 well baby visits.
* In addition, Kansas City Healthy Start referred 404 participants to other community services, with 83% following through on the referrals.
* While in Kansas City Healthy Start, 65% of women and 99% of enrolled children have a medical home.
* While in Kansas City Healthy Start, 79% of women and 90% of children have health insurance (including Medicaid).
Additionally:
* Kansas City Healthy Start provided outreach services to 820 women and their families.
* Kansas City Healthy Start disseminated information, shared resources, and recruited participants at 550 outreach events (e.g., health fairs), which averaged 2 hours in length. Altogether, 27,698 people participated, and 5,256 materials were disseminated.
* The program sponsored 94 training events for over 4,000 personnel and participants.
* Approximately 200 in-kind donations exceeded $150,000 in value between 2005 and 2008.
Unserved or Under-served Populations:
Racial or Ethnic Minorities, Disadvantaged Circumstances, Limited English, Geographic Areas, Urban
