PRESS RELEASE: HCAN granted $50 thousand from The Charlotte R. Schmidlapp Foundation

The Charlotte R. Schmidlapp Foundation, distributed by The Foundation Office at Fifth Third Bank, granted Health Care Access Now (HCAN) $50 thousand for its Maternal and Child Health Care Coordination program.

• Health care inequities disproportionately affect people of color in the Cincinnati region, as evidenced by infant health and mortality data. For example, the infant mortality rate for Black babies in Hamilton County is more than three times the rate of white babies.
• HCAN’s Community Health Workers (CHWs) use a nationally endorsed model and evidence-based approach for care coordination (Certified Pathways Community Hub (Hub)) to work one-on-one with low-to-moderate income pregnant women and mothers to eliminate health disparities.
• Thanks to this grant, approximately 250 mothers and pregnant women at risk of negative health outcomes will receive personalized care and support.

HCAN will use the grant’s funds to meet the needs of its clients and community. CHWs will focus on helping Black mothers to birth healthy-weight babies at full-term, and to complete their postpartum care, which will reduce the likelihood of health issues for mother and baby down the line.

Health Care Access Now (HCAN) has received a grant of $50 thousand dollars from The Charlotte R. Schmidlapp Foundation, distributed by The Foundation Office at Fifth Third Bank.  These funds will be used to create a sustainable, effective system to help Black women from the Cincinnati region to access consistent medical care and insurance coverage and address basic needs such as food, housing, and transportation.

Data from the 2020 Ohio Birth Resident Dataset and Cradle Cincinnati shows the ways in which health disparities affect the lives of historically marginalized groups from birth onward. For example, 14.6% of babies born to Black mothers in Hamilton County were pre-term, as opposed to 9% of babies born to white mothers.

“Our Community Health Workers [CHWs] from our Maternal and Child Health Care Coordination program connect with women individually to ensure that they have the resources they need and access to medical care that will result in good health outcomes,” says Sarah Mills, CEO of HCAN.

These funds will allow CHWs to focus on Black women, serving approximately 250 mothers and the higher health discrepancies they face, so that they and their children can have healthier lives. CHWs use the Certified Pathways Community Hub framework to assess needs, reduce risk, and build comprehensive care plans for their clients. This includes addressing social determinants of health and accompanying clients to medical appointments, but also imparting education on such subjects as safe sleep, disease management, breastfeeding, and more. This methodology has been shown to be effective at increasing healthy-weight and full-term births. Mothers who work with CHWs are also more likely to complete their postpartum care. Taken together, those outcomes contribute to a decreased infant mortality rate.

“The funding from this grant will allow HCAN to provide care for expecting mothers who might otherwise slip through the cracks,” says Mills. “Our goal is to level the playing field for Black mothers, so that they can have healthy pregnancies and deliveries—and be able to raise healthy children.”

HCAN is grateful to have received this grant from the Charlotte R. Schmidlapp Foundation. These funds will permit HCAN to work toward achieving its objective of eliminating health disparities in the region.