LAWRENCE, MA — Neighborhood Health Plan (NHP) announced that it is joining forces with the Greater Lawrence Family Health Center (GLFHC) to form a community coalition to improve the postpartum and well child visit rates in the Lawrence Latina community. This partnership comes as the result of a training and technical assistance award to NHP from the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation (HPHCF) Culture InSight Program.
NHP identified a disparity in the rate of Latina women who receive a postpartum follow-up, a crucial doctor’s visit about 6 weeks after delivery, and a corresponding disparity of Latino children not receiving the recommended number of well child visits, check-ups with a pediatrician to ensure infants and children are healthy, in their first 15 months of life.
NHP and the Greater Lawrence Family Health Center will build a coalition of core community organizations to assess barriers to care for this population and to design, implement,and evaluate an intervention to bridge the gap in care.
The project will last 15 months. As the coalition identifies the reasons why the targeted population is not receiving care, they will design ways to intervene and address these barriers.
“We are really excited to be working with GLFHC and grateful to Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation for this opportunity to start a coalition to improve the postpartum and well child visit rates — an issue that has a significant impact on our members in the Lawrence area,” said NHP President and CEO Deb Enos. “The Culture InSight services and training we will receive will be integral to the success of building a community coalition with the Greater Lawrence Family Health Center.”
“At the Greater Lawrence Family Health Center, we have been working tirelessly to improve the postpartum and well child visit rates in our community,” said Greater Lawrence Family Health Center CEO Robert Ingala. “This partnership with Neighborhood Health Plan and the coalition of community stakeholders will be key to our success.”
