Munson Healthcare System - Healthy Futures

What is it?

A partnership of area health care providers, health departments, and Munson Healthcare, the project offers free comprehensive education and support services to all area women during pregnancy until two years postpartum, with a focus on breastfeeding, immunization, and access to health care. Services can include ongoing home visits, risk assessment, referrals for medical or social services, direct provision of lactation education and support, postpartum self-care, newsletters with age-appropriate health and developmental information for parents, and urgent help in crisis situations.

The Healthy Futures collaborative is anchored by Munson Healthcare and currently includes three partnering birth hospitals. In extended areas of northern Michigan, access to perinatal care is challenged, and there exists opportunity for Healthy Futures expansion geographically and perhaps programmatically in the near future. Additionally, Healthy Futures leadership is looking to utilizing technology – texting, e-mailing of newsletters, and promoting effective smartphone applications – to enhance support of and communication with young families.

Who is it for?

Pregnant women and children under the age of two in a seven-county area of northwestern lower Michigan. The service area is mostly rural and increasingly economically challenged.

Why do they do it?

The need for quality health care is substantial during this age period, and research findings related to prenatal exposure and early-childhood brain development highlight the critical importance of early intervention.

Impact

Since the program’s inception, it has touched nearly 18, 000 children’s lives. At any given time, more than 1,800 families are receiving RN services through Healthy Futures. Breastfeeding and immunization rates for two-year-olds in the program are better than national, state, and regional averages. Nearly all (99 percent) newborns and children in the program have a primary health care provider, 96 percent of pregnant women are connected with an obstetrical provider, and 87 percent receive prenatal care in the first trimester, which is higher than the state’s average of 83 percent.

Contact: Betsy Hardy, RN, BSN
Healthy Futures Program Coordinator
Telephone: 231-935-5645
E-mail: lhardy@mhc.net