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Breastfeeding plays a crucial role in the overall health of babies and mothers and demonstrates hospitals’ and birthing centers’ commitment to improving infant and maternal health.

However, one of the biggest obstacles hospitals face in working to improve maternity care and lactation support practices is staff education.  Research shows that the level of lactation education provided in medical school and nursing schools falls short of that necessary to equip their graduates to confidently support breastfeeding parents. 

Hospitals often are aware of this gap and seek to address it by providing staff education, but expense and logistical challenges present significant barriers. 

The United Methodist Health Ministry Fund, through our High 5 for Mom & Baby program, is committed to promoting breastfeeding best practices and to supporting hospitals’ efforts to ensure their staff are prepared to support parents’ breastfeeding needs and goals.

Like many hospitals, the Health Fund sees online education as an ideal solution to hospital staff achieving adequate breastfeeding training, which is why the Health Fund developed a series of online breastfeeding education modules that are available for free on Kansas TRAIN. 

The online courses can be completed at the pace and time best suiting each participant and can be done either in the facility or at home with no special space or equipment required.

The online courses were developed following requests from hospitals and hearing from doctors and nurses about the impact of these education gaps.  The good news is that High 5 for Mom & Baby was prepared to act due to a partnership with the University of Kansas and Hays Med, which offered their in-person education classes as a foundation for the online training.

Using those existing classes as a base, High 5 for Mom & Baby program coordinator Gwen Whittit created a series of virtual educational modules developed for the Kansas Train platform.

These modules follow the WHO outline for educating staff on the 10 Steps to Successful Breastfeeding. Each of the fifteen modules provides one hour or more of CNEs and all are available at no cost, accessible any time online through the Kansas TRAIN platform.

The modules are available to any hospital staff or community member.  Though geared especially toward those having basic knowledge of breastfeeding, the classes are suitable for any health professional desiring to increase their knowledge of lactation and how to support successful breastfeeding.

A list of the classes and links to Kansas TRAIN are available at https://www.high5kansas.org/resources-for-hospitals.  The first step is to create a Kansas TRAIN account at https://www.train.org/ks/welcome, which also provides a short video explaining the process. Once logged in, go to “search courses” and enter “Kansas Breastfeeding Education” to view all fifteen modules including complete titles.

We hope this new training series will help care providers more confidently address the questions and needs of breastfeeding parents throughout Kansas to help infants get the best possible start in life.  

A Guide for Talking to Your Congregation: Supporting Empathetic Congregational Conversations on COVID-19 Vaccination

Widespread vaccination is the key to ending the COVID-19 pandemic and enabling a return to normal life. The Health Fund supports vaccination as a safe and highly effective way to prevent diseases including COVID-19 but also recognizes that the decision to be vaccinated is a personal one, influenced by many factors and complicated by the difficulty of discerning truth amid fear and misinformation. 

Research shows that Americans trust their own doctors and faith leaders for information about COVID-19 and vaccines. Through our dedication to health and the faith community, we developed a sermon guide and toolkit – Faith in Vaccines – to help faith leaders create an open and empathetic space to start a discussion and answer questions about the effectiveness and importance of the vaccine.

The guide and toolkit includes sermon materials, resources on how to share messages about vaccine effectiveness, resources on how to connect with medical providers to share scientific data, and actions faith leaders and congregations can take to discuss the benefits of the COVID-19 vaccines and promote vaccination.

The development of the sermon guide and toolkit was informed by regional discussions held with faith-based leaders across Kansas, along with input from several organizations and individuals who shared their expertise, research and resources as part of this project. In the event it is not possible to give a two-part sermon series on the topic, we hope congregations will still find the standalone toolkit provides helpful approaches, language, and resources to use in conversations about choosing to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Please share this site and information with others in the faith community who may benefit from these resources, and contact us with any questions.

Faith in Vaccines Social Media Tiles

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Many factors drive or determine health – how safe you feel in your community, access to parks, healthy food, high quality early learning and education, and, availability of health care providers and good paying jobs. These social factors will impact how healthy your community is and how healthy you are.

Now, more than ever, health is a life or death issue and decisions about your health are being made by elected officials. In some cases these are officials who have been elected at the local level by a very small portion of the population.

At the Health Fund, we are passionate about improving the health and wholeness of Kansans. Our work focuses on access to care, early childhood development and improving community and congregational health through the Healthy Congregations program.  To achieve these goals we’ve funded programs, worked on policy and systems change and regularly convene partners, policymakers and community members.

However, we’re increasingly learning that the more civically engaged a community is, the healthier the community. Unfortunately, Kansans are not voting in local elections at healthy levels. According to the Civic Health Index of 2016, authored by the Kansas Health Foundation and the National Conference on Citizenship, Kansas ranks just 41^st in the country in adults who report they vote in local elections.  The report highlights: “Even more concerning is that certain population groups in Kansas exhibit even lower levels of political involvement, including Kansans with lower levels of income, education, and those from racial/ethnic minority backgrounds.”

With the understanding that civic participation is tied to community health and that Kansans are not politically active – especially at the local level – we see an opportunity to improve community health by improving civic engagement.  That’s why we are excited to launch Faith in Democracy, an initiative dedicated to ensuring that every Kansan is able to be an informed, enthusiastic, engaged voter.    

The Faith in Democracy Project is being led by the Voter Network – a nonpartisan nonprofit whose approach to boosting engagement includes supporting one voter in making the case to another voter that they need to be engaged in the process. 

The project is aligned with our Healthy Congregations program, which aims to support congregations’ efforts to improve health through providing tools, resources and coaching. 

As part of the Faith in Democracy initiative, we will provide tools to support our Kansas Healthy Congregations in ensuring their members are able to access the polls. The Voter Network will be providing digital resources, a sermon kit and regular information on how to support members in registering to vote, finding their polling place (or even better, in light of COVID-19, voting by mail), and knowing who is on their ballot.

The United Methodist Church has a long history working toward social justice and a deep commitment to fostering healthy communities. We know the way to ensure healthy communities is for each person to be engaged and to have a voice. And we believe voting is at the core of that engagement. We know many of you are already incorporating voter engagement through your ministry and we hope the resources available through the Voter Network and the Faith in Democracy Project will elevate your efforts.

To learn more about the project, please don’t hesitate to contact me or contact Madeline Cochran madeline@thevoternetwork.org. 

 

Four Kansas nonprofit organizations have been selected as grant recipients of a new initiative to increase equity in school readiness and educational outcomes created by the Kansas Health Foundation (KHF) and the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund (Health Fund). Recipients include Kansas Breastfeeding Coalition, Metro Organization for Racial and Economic Equity, Storytime Village and Thrive Allen County.

For complete information about these grant recipients, please view the PDF version of this release.

New research finds that 86% of Kansans support expanding or maintaining telehealth services to access health care after the COVID-19 pandemic ends, according to a statewide poll of voters conducted in February. In 2020, the federal government, states, and private payers lifted previous restrictions on the use of telehealth to enable safe access to health care during the pandemic. Kansas moved to temporarily expand access to telehealth early in the pandemic, but those changes, popular with consumers, are set to run out before the end of 2021.

View the Kansas Telehealth Survey Results

The poll, conducted for the Health Fund and REACH Healthcare Foundation by GS Strategy Group, found that 48% of Kansans have utilized telehealth. Nationally, prior to the pandemic, just 11% were using telehealth. Kansans said they utilized telehealth for routine check-ups, mental health needs, and medication consultations, among other services.

“Kansans have eagerly adopted telehealth and now choose it for everything from medication consultations, to annual check-ups, to regular therapy sessions. Protecting and expanding access to telehealth is a common-sense approach to ensure that Kansans continue to receive quality health care when and where they need it,” said United Health Ministry Fund CEO David Jordan.

A majority of voters say that telehealth can help to drive down health care costs without negatively impacting quality of care. Voters cited personal safety from COVID-19, access to doctors and specialists, elimination of travel, and time savings as the top reasons to use telehealth.

Expanding Access to Telehealth in Kansas: Results by the Numbers

The poll, which reached 800 Kansas voters, found strong support for telehealth across party lines, geographies, and ages:

• 85% of Kansans think that telehealth has been helpful in meeting their care needs.
• 90% of Kansans think that telehealth is a good way to access care without taking time away from work or family.
• 92% of white voters and 95% of non-white voters think that telehealth should remain an option for patients beyond the pandemic.
• 93% of Kansans living in rural areas believe that telehealth is a good way to give patients who live far from major hospitals and specialists access to health care.

The study also found that when it comes to accessing care, 71% of non-white Kansans would prefer to see a doctor or health care professional who comes from their community, speaks their language, and looks like them.

“Telehealth eliminates transportation, childcare and time-off work barriers, which saves Kansans time and money. Instead of driving miles out of their way to see a specialist, they can talk to a provider on the device of their choice, from the comfort of their homes,” said Brenda Sharpe, President and CEO of the REACH Healthcare Foundation. “It’s clear that consumers overwhelmingly now want and expect the flexibility and ease of telehealth for their health care needs.” 

Most Kansans accessed telehealth services via an audio or video call from their home on their computer, laptop, or smartphone. In addition, the research found that 85% of Kansans support the continued ability to see providers from their home and on the platform or device of their choosing—something that would be eliminated if the current telehealth expansions are not continued.

This survey builds on previous research conducted by the Health Ministry Fund in conjunction with the University of Kansas School of Medicine, which showed a need to explore how to make telehealth services sustainable for providers as well as consumers.

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Press Release – Kansas Telehealth Survey Results

For more information, please contact:

David Jordan, United Methodist Health Ministry Fund, david@healthfund.org, 508.246.6825
Brenda Sharpe, REACH Healthcare Foundation, brenda@reachhealth.org, 913.568.8113

The survey was funded by the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund and REACH Healthcare Foundation, and conducted via telephone by GS Strategy Group in February 2021, with N=600 likely voters in Kansas, plus an oversample of N=200 non-white voters in Kansas, with a margin of error of +/-4%.  Full survey, methodology and findings are available upon request.

All Kansas families should live in communities of opportunity, where good schools, healthy environments, safe homes, quality jobs, and access to health care, high-quality goods and services are the norm. We believe education, health care, and children being ready to learn are critical pieces for creating and supporting communities of opportunity.

We also recognize that the foundation for learning is the physical, mental and emotional health of the child and the family, with the building blocks being established before birth. Research has shown that when children are healthy and ready to learn before they enter kindergarten, it increases their chances of success once they enter the school system. We need to address the environment into which children are being born, particularly for children facing challenges, such as high poverty, chronic stress and lack of resources/supports, to increase their long-term odds for success.

To this end, the Kansas Health Foundation (KHF) and the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund are partnering to engage three organizations to co-create and implement a shared advocacy approach, focused on children 0-8, designed to reduce barriers to academic success and improve educational outcomes. Because no single policy can effectively increase equity in school readiness or educational outcomes, we want to work with these grantee organizations to advance a multi-prong approach that recognizes the many issues and systems that impact children and families, including health access and high-quality early care. We believe that by engaging community voice and leadership, and supporting grassroots organizations with technical expertise and strong intersectional partnerships, positive impacts will be made on Kansas public policies in ways that reduce barriers to academic success and improve educational and health outcomes.

This request for proposals (RFP) focuses on the systems impacting children’s health, early learning, and high-quality education, to shift those in ways that create more opportunities for school readiness and educational success for more Kansas children. In particular, this initiative will support work that benefits Black, Indigenous and other People of Color (BIPOC) and low-income families experiencing the greatest barriers.

Further details about the Advocates for Equity, Education and Health Initiative can be found in the one-page overview and the official Request For Proposals document available via the KHF website. We also encourage applicants to review the Frequently Asked Questions document before applying.

Up to three organizations will be awarded up to $300,000 each to be used over a span of three years ($100,000 annually) beginning May 1, 2021 and ending April 30, 2024. Applications are accepted through Friday, March 5, 2021 at 5:00 p.m. CST.

Advocacy for Policy, Systems, and Environmental Change

We are asking the three organizations funded through this initiative to engage in advocacy efforts that will result in policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) changes that consider three fundamental questions:

1. How can we support BIPOC families in ways that create environments for young children that result in increased social, emotional and academic preparedness for entering school?
2. How can we help our early care and education providers and school districts reimagine their work so that more birth-to-eight age children are reaching their educational potential?
3. How can we support access to healthcare and support services for families so children have the healthiest possible start in life?

The grantees selected will advocate for PSE improvements to answer the above questions by:

• Creating more supportive environments that reduce barriers and prepare all Kansas children for a successful learning experience (i.e., increasing school readiness; access to mental health providers in school); and/or
• Aiding Kansas schools and early care and education providers in designing and delivering equitable education opportunities for children and caregivers using a whole child, two-generation approach to improve educational outcomes (supporting schools in their efforts to create greater achievement for students of culturally and racially diverse backgrounds). Click here to see how we define a two-generation approach: https://ascend.aspeninstitute.org/two-generation/what-is-2gen/ .

Both approaches are intended to lead to PSE changes resulting in more students experiencing success in the classroom.

Who should apply

We are interested in reaching organizations who have authentic connections to families with prenatal to age eight BIPOC children and those experiencing poverty to ensure these organizations have the opportunity to apply. Nonprofits which are tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code can apply. Eligible applicants are tax-exempt organizations qualified under Sections 509(a)(1) or (a)(2) of the Code.

If your organization has relevant experience and expertise but you question whether or how you should apply, please reach out to KHF Program Officer Chan Brown to discuss at cbrown@khf.org.

Informational webinar February 9, 2 p.m. CST

Interested applicants are encouraged (not required), to attend an informational webinar, which will provide an opportunity to learn more and ask questions about this initiative and the application process.

To participate in the webinar, please RSVP by providing the following information to Candace Malone at cmalone@khf.org: Name, organization(s)/affiliation(s), and the names and emails of any others attending from your organization/coalition.

For those who cannot attend the live webinar, a pre-recorded webinar covering most of what will be discussed on the 9th can be viewed here.

Important dates

Applicants Webinar: February 9, 2021, 2:00 – 3:00 p.m. CST
Proposals Due: March 5, 2021 by 5:00 p.m. CST
Grant Awards Announced: By April 17, 2021
Grant Term Begins: May 1, 2021
Please note, this timeline is subject to minor changes.

Virtual Discussions on the Future of Rural Health in Kansas

Please join the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund, Kansas Health Foundation and Kansas Hospital Association for one of our six regional meetings on the future of rural health in Kansas.  Details are here: https://www.communityconversationsks.com/scheduled-events

A strong health system is critical to thriving rural communities and the health of rural Kansans. Even before COVID-19 began surging in rural Kansas, it was becoming more difficult to sustain health care services in a changing Kansas, where the rural health system is starved of resources with limited opportunity to innovate. (see Health Fund President David Jordan’s op-ed on three ideas on how to address rural health challenges: https://kansasreflector.com/2020/11/14/these-3-things-will-make-rural-kansas-communities-healthier/)  

Significant shifts in population – sharp rural depopulation and an increase in older residents – make maintaining health care and other important services in rural communities more tenuous each year. Compounding the problem is the growing number of uninsured residents in rural Kansas, driving up uncompensated care costs and changes in how and what services are delivered in rural hospitals. And finally, the current financing system restricts the ability of hospitals to adapt to the changing times. Together, these challenges threaten health care in rural Kansas communities.

In an effort to better understand and prepare for the future of rural health care in Kansas, the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund is partnering with Kansas Health Foundation and Kansas Hospital Association on a series of regional conversations on the future of rural health.

During the six regional virtual events on the future of rural health, we’ll discuss the challenges facing our rural health care providers and we’ll explore potential solutions. 

More importantly, we want to hear Kansans’ thoughts on how to improve and sustain health care in rural communities. We hope you can join us for these meetings.  View details online https://lnkd.in/ezSKNxY or RSVP here, https://lnkd.in/eQaCAZP

We look forward to seeing you soon.

Strengths, Challenges and Opportunities

A new research report released by the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund finds that integrating Community Health Workers (CHWs) into care teams results in better and more appropriate access to health care services, improves health outcomes, addresses gaps and equity issues in the health care system, and delivers strong return on investment for the employer and at the system level.

In Kansas and throughout the country, CHWs are also known by names including health navigator, promotor(a), advocate, and educator. CHWs have long served as a bridge between community members and the medical and social services they need, but their role and importance has been less well known than that of other frontline health workers. CHWs engage in a variety of activities, such as providing assistance or guidance to community residents, culturally or linguistically appropriate education services, advocacy, coordination of care, and insurance enrollment.

To better understand the CHW landscape, the Health Fund commissioned a research study and the development of an interactive map to help Kansans locate CHWs across the state. A research brief summarizing the full report is also available. Conducted by Wichita State University’s Community Engagement Institute, the research outlined the strengths and benefits of utilizing CHWs, including:

• Return on investment: Integrating CHWs into the health care delivery system is associated with more cost-effective and sustainable care.
• Health outcomes: Individually-designed care made possible through CHWs leads to improved chronic disease control, mental health, quality of care, and reduced hospitalizations.
• Healthcare accessibility: CHWs increase access to services for individuals who often avoid preventive and routine care or only access health care for emergencies.

To ensure long-term success, broader implementation and sustainability of CHWs in Kansas, the report also highlights crucial steps that need to be taken to recognize the profession and to establish sustainable funding for CHWs, including:

• Continuing to collect data to demonstrate value
• Demonstrating non-monetary value
• Standardizing education and training
• Exploring alternative funding

Beyond supporting research regarding CHWs, the Health Fund recently awarded four Kansas health centers and hospitals grant funding to support demonstration projects utilizing CHWs. The Health Fund will also be supporting the training of a cohort of CHWs in Kansas and will work to educate policymakers, payers, and the public about the benefits of CHWs in Kansas.

Survey of health providers: August-September 2020

A crisis shows telehealth works; now we need to explore how to sustain services

Earlier this year, in an effort to help providers and patients maintain access to health services during the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government and the State of Kansas issued emergency telehealth policy changes to improve access to telehealth services and preserve access to care during the pandemic. A summary of telehealth policy changes in Kansas includes:

• Expanded reimbursement and parity in payment for select services
• Broadened reimbursement for telephone visits and relaxed requirements for communications platforms
• Relaxed rules for originating and distance sites
• Additional provider types and services available for patients
• Ability to use out-of-state providers, if certain conditions are met, to increase access to services
• Decreased geographic limitations

To help understand how these changes impacted the utilization of telehealth services by Kansas providers and patients, the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund partnered with provider groups in Kansas to survey their members about their experience with the delivery of telehealth services. The research, conducted by the University of Kansas School of Medicine, sought to understand how providers and consumers characterized their experience in light of policy changes that sought to make telehealth service more broadly available.

The research shows providers and patients benefited from expanded use of telehealth services during COVID-19, especially during the early months of the virus outbreak as in-person visits declined. The use of telehealth by providers such as primary care physicians, nurse practitioners, and psychiatrists increased from 2019 to 2020, according to survey respondents.

The Health Fund is presenting this new research to the KanCare Oversight Committee on Dec. 9. The testimony, a policy brief on the report, and the slides that Dorothy Hughes, University of Kansas Medical Center, will present on findings of the research she conducted are linked here. Feb. 9, 2021 testimony to the House Health and Human Services Committee is available here.

Providers say telehealth will remain an important part of ensuring patients can access care. In fact, many outpatient providers are planning to expand telehealth services. Respondents reported that policy changes negatively impacting telehealth reimbursement would be a barrier to greater use of telehealth and thus access to needed services and specialists. The following illustrative quotations demonstrate providers’ sentiments overall about the use of telehealth:

“I was totally against telehealth before COVID. I did not see a use for it in my practice. Now that I have tried it…my patients and I love it. I’m very afraid that reimbursement will be taken away and I will have to give it up.”

“We need to continue to be able to provide telehealth and phone services for our patients to keep them safe and be reimbursed like in person visits so that keeping our patients safe does not negatively impact our ability to keep our clinic doors open. The overhead cost of providing telehealth services makes this difficult otherwise.”

85 percent of providers responding to the survey said expanded reimbursement was the #1 priority for making sure telehealth continues to have a positive impact in Kansas.

Previous research and this survey highlight that telehealth offers many benefits to Kansans, such as:

• Improving access to care for patients in both urban and rural settings
• Increasing continuity of care
• Decreasing time away from work or families to see medical providers
• Allowing providers to better contain and manage health care costs

Telehealth is not intended to replace in-person care, but provides both patients and health care providers with options that can contribute to positive patient outcomes, including, for example, chronic disease management and monitoring in elderly or vulnerable patients who are at risk for falls and where in-home monitoring presents a safer option.

This initial survey is strong evidence that telehealth can play a significant role in improving health care access for Kansans. More information can be found in the full report here: healthfund.org/a/telehealth-report-20.

Health Fund receives five-year Lilly Endowment grant to strengthen partnerships and expand programs supporting community health ministry

At the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund we work hard each day to improve the health of Kansans through strategic philanthropy guided by Christian values, which is why we’re excited to announce that we received a five-year Thriving Congregations Initiative 2020 grant from the Lilly Endowment.  The $999,058 grant will enable the Health Fund to strengthen our partnership with the Neighboring Movement to expand both the Healthy Congregations program and the Good Neighbor Experiment.

Our Healthy Congregations program recognizes that local churches play a major role in shaping each community’s culture, values, and sense of place. Healthy Congregations engages Great Plains United Methodist churches in projects to improve spiritual, physical, social, and emotional health in their congregations and communities.  As part of our Healthy Congregations program we work to build leadership among participating congregations by providing training, resources, and financial support to Great Plains United Methodist churches committed to health ministry.

We also offer special grant initiatives to support congregations interested in addressing social needs.  As a strategy to help increase a congregation’s capacity to address social isolation and other needs in their community, one of the special grant opportunities we’ve been supporting is the Neighboring Movement’s Good Neighbor Experiment.  The Good Neighbor Experiment leads cohorts of participating congregations through three training workshops using a 24-week curriculum that connects asset-based community development with time-honored Christian values, focusing on strengths versus needs and helping teams practice the learned skills of community neighboring.  Through our partnership, 18 Great Plains United Methodist Conference congregations are currently participating in the program.

Looking forward, we are excited about the Lilly Endowment’s Thriving Congregation Initiative grant because it will enable us to partner with the Neighboring Movement to bring the Good Neighbor Experiment to many more churches within the Great Plains Conference and to churches throughout the country.  The grant will also help us expand our Healthy Congregation program and the capacity of leaders within Healthy Congregations churches to grow their health ministry and improve health in their community.   As we look to the future, we know that building on the strengths within congregations can help us improve health and address challenges resulting from health crises like the pandemic or the increasing prevalence of social isolation and division.  We’re excited to take on these challenges in partnership with the Neighboring Movement and with support from the Lilly Endowment.

A news release for this announcement is available here.