New Haven Healthy Start provides a continuum of improvements to a fragmented maternal and child healthcare system using a care coordination model. The model is exemplary in its comprehensive approach to maternal and child healthcare. Components of the model are extensive:
- referrals to medical facilities;
- case management and outreach;
- a networked data system accessible to all service providers;
- an examination process for all infant and fetal deaths;
- a collaborative to improve racial disparity and birth outcomes;
- a consortium made up of health officials and Healthy Start consumers.
The program is run through a large network of State-wide and local partners, including: Connecticut’s Department of Public Health, The New Haven Health Department, Yale-New Haven Hospital, Hospital of St. Raphael, Hill Health Center, Fair Haven Community Health Center, New Haven Family Alliance (Male Involvement Network), and Life Haven Inc.
New Haven Healthy Start is focusing its efforts in the African American population, in which the infant mortality rate is higher than any other race in New Haven. The program looks at all factors influencing birth outcomes, including racial and ethnic health disparities. Research shows that there are significant racial and ethnic health disparities in New Haven. A report entitled Addressing Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Low Birthweight for Connecticut (Morin, 2008) notes that African American (30.2%) and Hispanic (26.4%) women are three times more likely to receive late or no prenatal care in New Haven. In 2008, New Haven Healthy Start was successful in increasing the percentage of women entering a prenatal care program by 14%.
New Haven Healthy Start was an outgrowth of the work of the Commission on Child and Infant Health, which was convened by The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven in 1985. The Commission was formed to address the high infant mortality and morbidity rates in New Haven and was a collaboration between health officials, community leaders and child care advocates. Its work provided the base for The Community Foundation’s application for federal funding for a Healthy Start program in New Haven. Since receiving its first Federal grant in 1997, the New Haven Healthy Start (NHHS) team has successfully implemented all core services for a federal Healthy Start program.