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The black infant mortality rates in Mahoning County is among the highest in Ohio
AUSTINTOWN
The Mahoning County Pathways HUB coordinator says the program, three months into its second year, is making measurable progress toward reducing the infant mortality rate in Mahoning County, particularly in the black community.
“We’re able to bring more consistency in providing services and avoid duplication of services,” said Michelle Edison, HUB coordinator.
The agencies were “siloed” and not communicating with each other to the extent that they are now through HUB, said Edison of Boardman.
The infant mortality rate is the number of babies who die in the first year of life per 1,000 live births.
Local public and clinical health officials in Mahoning County previously described reducing the county’s high IMR as a marathon, not a sprint.
But officials have also said that Mahoning County’s overall infant mortality rate, among the worst in Ohio and the nation, is improving.
Ohio did better in 2014, when Ohio had the 39th worst overall infant mortality rate in the nation, compared with 46th overall and 50th among blacks in 2012,
The black IMR in Mahoning County was 17.7 in 2015 and 10.2 in 2014. This compares with white babies’ IMR of 6.4 in 2014 and 5.2 in 2015, according to the Youngstown Office on Minority Health.
Edison said HUB’s innovative way of addressing the infant mortality rate is to coordinate services of provider organizations – such as Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies, Resource Mothers Program of Mahoning and Trumbull counties and Mahoning County Help Me Grow.
Healthy Moms is a neighborhood outreach program that targets pregnant, high-risk black women in Mahoning and Trumbull counties; Mahoning County Help Me Grow provides intervention and visiting services, and The Resource Mothers Program of Mahoning and Trumbull counties supports women during their pregnancy and for one year after the birth of their baby with monthly home visits. The programs’ basic goals are healthier pregnancies, births and lives.
Edison said another important cog in HUB’s program is connecting clients with needed resources to reduce social deterrents such as transportation and employment, prenatal care for mothers and safe sleep environments for babies.
Using grant money, HUB hired and trained certified community health care workers who go to client’s homes to offer education and mentoring. Also, Mahoning County HUB contracted with an agency to provide transportation for clients who need it.
“We’re effective because we’re helping clients reach their potential. By addressing housing and employment and education, we are opening the path to better health and better IMRs,” Edison said.
“If we can get women enrolled as early as possible in their pregnancies, we are better able to meet their needs and ensure their ability to have better birth outcomes,” she said.
Edison, who has master’s degrees in exercise physiology from West Virginia University and in public health from Youngstown State University, worked several years as a fitness instructor and wellness coordinator at the Youngstown YMCA before becoming the Mahoning County HUB coordinator.
While at the YMCA, Edison said she discovered that she enjoyed helping peopl and developed a particular interest in working in population (public) health.
“I saw HUB as a chance to be part of an innovative way to address a really big issue we are facing ... the high infant mortality rate,” she said.