Family Health
Working to ensure the health and well-being of Louisiana’s families.Overview
LPHI’s Family Health portfolio works to ensure the health and well-being of Louisiana’s women, children, adolescents, and families by building and supporting strong community networks designed to expand access to high quality health care and education across the life course. Our programs support whole-person health care through increased community capacity for primary care, behavioral health, reproductive and sexual health services, and social service provision. Additionally the portfolio works to improve access to high quality sexual health education for young people. The portfolio supports policy and advocacy efforts to promote the ability of Louisiana’s families — in each and every formation — to thrive.
Programs and Initiatives
Doula Coordination Community of Practice:
LPHI, in collaboration with Healthy Blue, facilitated a community of practice focused on coordination between doulas and healthcare providers in the following parishes: East Baton Rouge, Iberville (North), Lafayette, Pointe Coupee, St. Landry, and West Baton Rouge. The 1-year community of practice concluded in September 2023. Key activities included 4 learning sessions, where participants heard from regional experts, and 4 coaching calls where participants worked with their peers to improve coordination and collaboration between doulas and healthcare providers to ultimately improve equity
and maternal health outcomes.
Learn more here.
Geaux Talk: Comprehensive Sex Education Advocacy
The Geaux Talk campaign is designed to empower Louisianans to incorporate comprehensive sex education (CSE) into school curricula in order to combat the existing high rates of teen pregnancy and STDs. CSE promoted by Geaux Talk includes abstinence-based messages and content, and expands upon those messages with age appropriate medically accurate information. In addition, parents and caregivers have the opportunity to select and support material that coincides with their family values and improves health outcomes for their children,
Connections
Based on recommendations from LPHI’s Adolescent Mapping Project (AMP), Connections: Bridging Teens+Sex+Health was established in 2016. Connections has three tiers: Connection to Education, Connection to Care, and Connection to Community. Connection to Education provides technical assistance to schools to improve and expand comprehensive sex education using the WISE (Working to Institutionalize Sex Ed) Method. WISE is a national initiative that supports school districts in implementing sex education. Connection to Care works with clinics and schools to develop a more robust referral network to link adolescents to reproductive health services in the greater New Orleans area based on CDC’s Project Connect intervention. Connection to Community currently includes two adolescent health coalitions, the Louisiana Adolescent Reproductive Health Coalition and the Ouachita Youth Coalition. We are also developing an emerging interfaith coalition. LPHI founded the Louisiana Adolescent Reproductive Health Coalition, which comprises members from around the state who advocate for improved policy regarding adolescent sexual health. The Ouachita Youth Coalition is led by our partner, Children’s Coalition for Northeast Louisiana and focuses on improving the health of young people in Ouachita Parish.
Reproductive Health Integration Initiative (RHII)
Community health centers are an essential part of the health care landscape in Louisiana and are leaders in setting standards for community-based, patient-centered care. LPHI is partnered with the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH) Office of Public Health (OPH) Bureau of Family Health and the Louisiana Primary Care Association (LPCA) in a strategic partnership to improve the quality of and access to reproductive health care statewide.
School Food Initiatives
Research conducted over the last four years suggests that environmental factors and school policies are associated with under consumption of healthy foods. LPHI and Propeller: A Force for Social Innovation and a School Food Authority (The Healthy School Food Collaborative) have piloted low cost policies and environmental interventions designed to promote consumption of healthy school lunch among New Orleans public school students. Findings have provided valuable evidence to inform policy and system changes related to school food administration and practices. Research efforts have spanned three phases. Phase 1 included grades K-5 in eight schools and measured the food consumption at a single lunch-period per school. Phase II collected plate waste data at eight schools for 40 consecutive school days to enhance the reliability of the data. Phase III compared the results of a policy intervention to a comprehensive intervention with multiple components.
The Louisiana Department of Health’s Bureau of Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion partnered with LPHI to assess current fundraising practices in schools and to develop a roadmap for implementing healthy fundraising. Findings from the assessment revealed challenges and success stories on creative strategies to ensure the healthiest foods are being sold in school. The Roadmap to Healthy Fundraising in Louisiana Schools was released in the fall of 2016.
Trauma Informed Care in Schools
In addition to supporting the integration of behavioral health services in school based health centers across the greater New Orleans region, the portfolio supports ongoing citywide efforts around trauma-informed care in schools and with community based organizations. LPHI, in partnership with the New Orleans Health Department and local trauma experts, plays a role in the Trauma-Informed School Learning Collaborative, which launched in 2015 to support schools in implementing trauma-informed approaches. This collaborative effort provides assistance for schools to become trauma-sensitive schools—building awareness of the prevalence of trauma and increasing schools’ capacity to respond to traumatized students’ unique needs.
Inter-Pregnancy Care (IPC) Project
The Inter-Pregnancy Care (IPC) project seeks to a) improve the health of low-income women and children by reducing pre-term and low-birth weight infants born in the Greater New Orleans area; and b) connect women with adverse birth outcomes to evidence-based care. A model of IPC was adapted from Grady Memorial Hospital and a sample of Greater New Orleans Community Health Connection (GNOCHC) clinics have been selected to become IPC Centers for Excellence. A few areas of focus within the project have included engaging key stakeholders to link women with adverse birth outcomes to participating clinics and working with Louisiana’s Medicaid managed care organizations and participating clinics on transitions, continuity of care, and linkage protocols to assure maternal health across prenatal, post-natal, and inter-pregnancy periods.