Having a baby is a big change and becoming new parents can be nothing short of overwhelming. But, Healthy Futures is here to help. This program connects young families in the region and provides them with the support and resources they need to make a healthy start.
Since 1998, Healthy Futures has worked to ensure that every mother-to-be and child under two can enjoy a healthy beginning by providing the right resources and help — from registered nurses in the community to a vast partnership network that includes Munson Healthcare, regional health departments and health care providers.
“Healthy Futures was one of Munson Healthcare’s first population-health programs,” explained Betsy Hardy, BSN, RN, Coordinator of Healthy Futures. “At any given time, there are about 2,000 actively enrolled families, and we’ve served more than 25,000 in 20 years.”
Now, the program is reaching even more families with its recent expansion to Grayling Hospital in November 2016. According to Tika Mitchell-Cowie, RN, Nurse Manager of Maternal and Newborn Center and Perinatal Care Coordination at Grayling Hospital, they wanted to adopt the Healthy Futures model to further their reach and have a positive impact on families. In fact, 100 percent of their prenatal patients are now referred to Healthy Futures.
Although the program is relatively new, Tika says the nurses at Grayling Hospital (about 16 are involved in the program) are happy with the program, especially with patients being seen post-partum. “Issues like depression or infants not feeding well can be identified and addressed by connecting patients to community resources,” she said.
Betsy, whose own daughter was a Healthy Futures baby and is now in college, says the program in Grayling is off to a great start because it had a solid foundation to begin with. “They were doing great things before we integrated our work together. We merged their best practices with our infrastructure to make a ‘stronger’ together model,” she said. “They were way ahead with connecting their patients to resources and their transfer of care and follow through is exceptional. It’s been a pleasure and an honor to work alongside them.”
Tika says during the next year they’ll be working hard to enroll moms-to-be in their first trimester and to have 100 percent of their patients schedule a post-partum follow-up visit. “Motherhood can be overwhelming,” she said. “Our job will be to make sure we explain the program well enough so they understand it’s a valuable service. Our long term goal is to provide care from the beginning of pregnancy to the six-week post-partum visit and then link families, through other programs, to services until their kids get to kindergarten.” Now that’s a foundation for a healthy future!