Public Health
Update
Maternal Child and Adolescent Health (MCAH) Programs: Serving Pregnant and Parenting Women throughout San Joaquin County BY LORY MERCER BSN, RN, PHN, MCAH PROGRAMS MANAGER AND MARIYA RABOVSKY-HERRERA BSN, RN, PHN, MCAH COORDINATOR Fredrick Douglas said, “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men”. The greatest opportunity to protect and improve the health of our communities begins in pregnancy and infancy. Public Health Services’ MCAH programs support families in raising strong and healthy children, through both direct services and systems-level interventions. As a physician, you may have often felt that your pregnant or parenting patients need extra help, additional education, or case management that you wish you had the time or the resources to address. MCAH is here to help fill in those gaps and provide those resources to your patients as well as provide comfort to you knowing that follow up will be offered to them. Most MCAH services are provided in the home. This creates a different power dynamic than clinic-based services. MCAH staff develop long-term trusting relationships with the whole household - the foundation upon which to motivate meaningful behavior change. Due to COVID-19, MCAH also offers video or telephone appointments in lieu of, or in addition to, in-person home visits. All services are always free of charge to the patient. Referrals are very welcome! If any of the programs listed below would be of interest to you and your patients, please call the MCAH program at 209.468.3004 or by email at mcah-info@sjcphs. org. In return, you will receive a “universal” referral form to
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SAN JOAQUIN PHYSICIAN
complete. Once received, MCAH staff will contact your families directly with the program(s) that best fits their needs. MCAH programs include: • Nurse Home Visiting: Public Health Nurses (PHNs) visit medically high-risk mothers, infants, and children. Our nurses are prepared to answer questions, submit referrals and come to visits with equipment to weigh and measure infants and take maternal blood pressures. Home visits with the PHN are approximately every 4 weeks. Eligibility: Anyone who is pregnant, any parent/caregiver of a baby under 1 year old, or a parent/caregiver of a child up to 5 years old with special healthcare needs (any child with medical or developmental needs requiring services beyond that of typical children). • Healthy Families San Joaquin: With over 500 sites in the U.S, the Healthy Families America (HFA) model focuses on strengthening parentchild relationships and interactions and is most beneficial for families with social risk factors or child welfare involvement. Home visits with a Family Support Specialist begin weekly, and then decrease in frequency. This is an evidence-based program; 19 publications of randomized controlled trials found
SUMMER 2022
