This summer I had to the opportunity to complete a 150 hour internship with Archway Partnership and the Public Service and Outreach (PSO) scholars program at the University of Georgia with the assistance of the Ash Service Award. Archway Partnership is a UGA extension with 8 Georgia counties that assists in improving self-identified areas of need using university resources. This program partners with PSO scholars, a year-long program designed to help students link public service experiences with career and educational goals, through offering 1-2 students in the PSO cohort an internship during their second semester in the program. I had the opportunity to serve as a research intern with Archway during the spring of 2017 where I developed a policy proposal targeting the reduction of low birthweight rates. I am extremely passionate about community focused healthcare, health disparities, and women’s health. Furthermore, low birth weight rates was a self-identified issue in almost all the counties that Archway serves. The combination of personal and community interest in this health issue made it the perfect project for me to tackle.
Through my research, I found that the proportion of pregnant mothers who qualify for government and non-profit aid is much lower than the proportion of mothers who actually take advantage of these resources. This is because many women may not be aware of the resources available or their eligibility. Furthermore, low income women in rural counties that end up receiving care take longer before they start to utilize services due to the time sensitive, complex application processes as well as cultural barriers. During my spring internship, I developed a resource booklet that outlines all the possible resources available to pregnant women in their county along with service costs, eligibility guidelines, contact information, and location. My goal was that the guide could be used as a tool to reduce the lag between identifying a pregnancy and seeking prenatal care. I also wanted to use the guide as a resource to create stronger referral links between agencies that offer prenatal support. Furthermore, I wanted to create a booklet that was comprehensive enough so patients without internet access would still have all the information they would need.
Although I thoroughly enjoyed my spring internship, I felt like my project was still unfinished. After speaking with my mentors, I realized that my internship experience and impact would be incomplete without adding an immersive component. In order to leave a meaningful impact, I need to be able to apply my resource booklet to improve the wellbeing of the members in the communities Archway serves. Furthermore, I wanted to have the opportunity to visit the counties and community stake holders I was working with. Participating in culturally sensitive and community led research is extremely important to my values and ethics, so it was imperative that I took the time to visit the Archway counties to learn from local leaders tackling this health concern and community members directly affected by policies in place.
So, this summer with the assistance of the Ash Service award, I had the opportunity to travel and live in several of the counties that Archway serves. We visited areas throughout the state of Georgia from small rural towns such as Ellenton to metro Atlanta suburbs such as Lovejoy. My first goal for this summer was to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the issues posed by low birth weight rates in the state. Although there were many resources on the internet, meeting with locals who were directly impacted by the issue provided me with an indispensable perspective I could not find anywhere else. I attended centering pregnancy programs, which are a group based model for prenatal care that targets Medicaid and uninsured women. They educated women on a variety of topics such as nutrition, domestic violence, and birth control methods. I spoke to the women attending the meetings as well as medical staff that ran them and learned about the different styles of prenatal care available. Group prenatal care proved to be extremely effective in reducing many of the barriers that lower income women faced when seeking care such as finding transportation and childcare by building a support network of women who are facing similar challenges. I also spoke with the managers of the programs to learn more about positive outreach and community engagement strategies. Although the same centering model was used to combat low birth weights in many of the counties we visited, each program was adapted and modified to fit the needs of their specific population. A prenatal regiment that is effective with migrant farm workers in rural Georgia will likely not be a good fit for mothers living in metro Atlanta. The demographics of the patient population, the barriers to care, and the cultural values all need to be considered. This showed me the importance of developing local leaders in healthcare who are familiar with the culture and customs of the area they serve and can cater programs that are tailored to the specific needs of their individual community.
I also had the chance to speak with local government officials such as city commissioners, hospital directors, school superintendents, and officials on various special interest boards to understand what goes into developing and implementing policy to target healthcare issues. Although some of them were aware of the health crisis posed by low birth weight, it is always difficult to allocate finances to addressing all the issues that face their communities. In many of these counties, low birth weight was just one of many concerns that they had to tackle. It was interesting to learn about the process that goes into implementing policy or approving funding for projects. I also visited many local health departments, which is typically the first point of contact for low income women to seek pregnancy testing. I was able to speak with and shadow physicians who handle many of the high-risk pregnancies in their communities. This experience provided me with the opportunity to understand the importance of early intervention strategies in reducing low birth weight rates. It also provided me with insight on what are effective and ineffective strategies in interacting with mothers and their families. As an aspiring physician, this was a very insightful experience. These trips also showed me the difference in the types of care provided, the insurance/financial regulations, and the limitations in a variety of programs from state level health departments to federal programs to non-profit agencies. One of the intents of my project was to strengthen links between these different categories of services, and understanding how each functions was very integral to my project and experience.
The second goal of my summer internship was to increase the scope of the implementation of my resource guide. I had the opportunity to present my project to county executive committee meetings, which are boards comprised of primary stakeholders in all areas of the community. I also spoke to OBGYN doctors, non-profit organizations, and health departments and distributed copies and digital access of the guide to leaders in these communities that were working towards improving maternal and fetal health. It was important for me to involve local stakeholders that were already invested and working in the Archway communities to increase the scope and distribution of the guide to women who can take advantage of it. Furthermore, I wanted to use the guide as a method to improve referral links between programs. Most organizations I worked with were not aware of all the other organizations that were also working towards the same goal of maternal and fetal health, so this guide acted as a resource to form new relationships between preexisting resources. I also received invaluable advice on how to improve and edit my guide to better serve the targeted populations. Some stakeholders asked for a Spanish version of the guide, while others wanted a version with more pictures and less words, and others wanted information on resources that I didn’t even think to include. I realized that although the Internet is a great resource, this summer opportunity allowed me to take my guide to the next level in usefulness and its relevance to our communities.
If you are interested in applying for the 2018 Public Service and Outreach Scholars Program, you can access the application here: https://servicelearning.uga.edu/pso-student-scholars. Application are due on March 30th, 2018.
Public Service and Outreach Student Scholars Program 