Houston, TX

Alief Super Neighborhood Council
West Houston Medical Center (WHMC-HCA)
Houston Health Dept - WIC
Asian American Health Coalition of the Greater Houston Area dba HOPE Clinic
Community Health Choice

ABOUT

The Maternal Upstream Management (MUM) Program reflects a cross-sector collaboration to address the high negative newborn and maternal rates Houston by addressing social determinants experienced by women during perinatal care. The partners seek to create an environment in which Alief women can access quality, affordable, and early prenatal care, family planning, and parenting skills. The program will create an environment in which children, aged zero to six, can thrive by addressing education, community engagement, safety, employment, and health. The program employs Community Advocates that identifies community leaders and trains them to work with the community to educate, navigate and help build trust among partners and community so that holistic care is supported by the community.

Health Equity

The project aims to reduce gaps in health care access by developing opportunities for the community to be healthier and supporting them as active voices in improving health as they advocate, prioritize, and organize around identified health disparities. In addition, the hospital and the insurance company will develop learnings about key community investments to improve outcomes and reduce health risks, become better employers, and leverage resources for the benefit of the community.

BUILD PRINCIPLES

BUILD and its communities apply bold, upstream, integrated, local, and data-driven (BUILD) approaches to improve health in communities that are adversely affected by upstream factors.

Bold

Creating change In a community where 68% of families speak a language other English is audacious. We are creating trust among residents and generating lasting partnerships between health care providers and the community, increasing provider’s knowledge of how the social determinants affect healthcare and how to address them. These include activating community spaces, creating incentives to increase early prenatal services and continued access to women’s health services, and promoting breastfeeding.

Upstream

This program focuses on upstream factors by creating and training residents as Community Advocates that understand the challenges of housing, nutrition, substance use (including tobacco), social connectedness, transportation, education, and employment.

Integrated

The multi-sector collaboration creates and supports a social network that focuses efforts on residents improving women’s health and that of their families by increasing community trust, focusing on personal health, and creating systemic change so that there is agreement on what a healthy community should look like and how to work to create that reality.

Local

The vision is to have a cadre of identified, trusted, and educated community leaders to deliver a message of care and support to women in their community. We aim to support knowledge-building and community leadership by focusing on a matter that is prioritized by community members across cultures. We will build on the success of this work to address other health issues through an upstream lens.

Data-Driven

This project will be guided by a city-wide Steering Committee focused on maternal outcomes. The Community Advocates will obtain birth outcomes for non-HOPE Clinic patients, which will be included with the data already monitored by the hospital and clinic to understand outcomes such as low-birth weight, preterm births, and maternal morbidity and mortality, as well as upstream needs. We will identify how these needs are addressed and identify gaps.