Project Description:
NH-ME LEND is a partnership of three institutions of higher education: Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College (Hanover, NH), University of New Hampshire (UNH; Durham, NH), and University of Maine (UMaine; Orono, ME). UNH and UMaine also house University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UNH Institute on Disability, UMaine Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies).
UMaine has recently begun a relationship with New Mainers Public Health Initiative (NMPHI), which is a public health and social service agency, headquartered in Lewiston, that serves New Mainersrecent immigrants to the secondary resettlement area and their families.
NMPHI Mission
The mission of NMPHI is: To work collaboratively within the community to educate New Mainers about preventive health measures by promoting healthy habits, protecting against disease, and linking community members with available and appropriate resources to change the way they think about and respond to preventing and managing disease complications.
Believing that Knowledge is Power, New Mainers Public Health Initiatives is committed to empowering, informing, and educating New Mainers about health, especially in the area of diagnostic and therapeutic services support in order to increase the number of beneficiaries who get screened, assessed, diagnosed, monitored, and treated. Our chief goal is to develop the capacity of the immigrant communities to recognize and respond to disease complications by mobilizing community partnerships and solving community level health problems by bridging the gaps in healthcare services.
NMPHIs mission includes providing support, cultural sensitivity, and resources for patients and their families before and after surgeries and in the administration of treatment plans in order to lessen trauma, improve rehabilitation outcomes, and enhance communications with health care providers.
NMPHI has also recently become a provider of Medicaid-funded Rehabilitative and Community Support Services for Children with Cognitive Impairments and Functional Limitations. UMaine is currently partnering with NMPHI to develop parent advocacy training (especially regarding Individualized Educational Programs and advocacy within the K-12 education system) for families receiving these services from NMPHI.
Leveraging this new relationship, we propose the following goals, objectives, and activities:
Goal 1. NH-ME LEND trainees will have improved culturally competent training experiences with the Somali population.
Objective 1.1. Develop and use materials for NH-ME LEND seminars to provide all trainees with requisite background on Somali populations in Maine and NH.
Activity 1.1.1. NMPHI and NH-ME LEND will meet to develop mutual understanding of goals of LEND program and needs of Somali populations in NH and Maine.
Activity 1.1.2. NMPHI personnel will attend existing NH-ME LEND seminar to gain further understanding of LEND format. We tentatively identify Module 2, (Overview of Neurodevelopmental Disabilities and the Autism Spectrum Disorders) and/or Module 3 (Health Equity and Lifecourse), likely to be delivered in September-October 2018. The content of these modules are already aligned with other services that NMPHI provides as a Medicaid-contracted provider of home and community-based services to children on the autism spectrum in the Somali community.
Activity 1.1.3. NMPHI and NH-ME LEND personnel will jointly develop seminar materials for delivery to future trainees. This will include the NH-ME LEND training director (Betsy Humphreys at University of New Hampshire) and other members of the curriculum planning team (Susan Russell and Alan Kurtz at UMaine, Rae Sonnenmeier at UNH).
Activity 1.1.4. In spring semester 2019, NMPHI personnel will deliver a seminar to NH-ME LEND long-term trainees on Somali population in Maine.
Objective 1.2. Develop and implement leadership placement for NH-ME LEND trainee with NMPHI.
Activity 1.2.1. NMPHI and UMaine personnel will meet to discuss opportunities at NMPHI for a community leadership field placement for one (1) Maine trainee during the 2018-2019 academic year. Because Ms. Marnie Morneault is already beginning development of a parent advocacy training module for parents of children on the autism spectrum who are receiving Medicaid-funded services from NMPHI, the leadership field placement may incorporate some involvement with that work.
Activity 1.2.2. UMaine personnel will finalize leadership placement materials (placement description, Memorandum of Agreement) and will identify Maine trainee and leadership mentors with NMPHI personnel by September 30, 2018, so placement can begin October 1, 2018.
Activity 1.2.3. UMaine trainee will complete a minimum of 70 hours with NMPHI under the supervision of NMPHI and UMaine personnel as leadership mentors.
Objective 2.1. Convene a project team, made up of the Executive Director of NMPHI (Said), NH-ME LEND Co-PI/CCIDS Director (Cobo-Lewis), Project Leads from NMPHI (Omer) and NH-ME LEND (Russell), in September, January and June to ensure project completion and a successful and beneficial collaboration between NMPHI and NH-ME LEND.
Activity 2.1.1. Project team (see obj. 2.1) will meet regularly to identify other opportunities for collaboration between the two organizations.
Activity 2.1.2. Project team (see obj. 2.1) will meet regularly to share successes, concerns, and benefits of partnership going forward.
Unserved or Under-served Populations:
Racial or Ethnic Minorities, Disadvantaged Circumstances, Limited English, Geographic Areas, Rural/Remote
