UNC Center for Maternal and Infant Health
Faculty Field Instructor: Sarah Verbiest, MPH, MSW, DrPH
The Center’s mission is to improve the health of North Carolina’s women and infants through quality clinical services, provider and patient education, research, advocacy and state leadership. The activities at the Center are varied, allowing trainees to design internships around their areas of interest and skill enhancement goals. Trainees have participated in learning activities such as needs assessments, program development, grant writing, project evaluation, research design, data collection and analysis, coalition development and maintenance, and public health campaign design. Trainees also have the opportunity to participate in major statewide meetings on key issues in maternal and infant health. To learn more about the Center for Maternal and Infant Health, please visit www.mombaby.org.
National Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center (NECTAC)
Located at UNC's FPG Child Development Institute, NECTAC supports the national implementation of the early childhood provisions of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Its mission is to strengthen service systems to ensure that children with disabilities (birth through five) and their families receive and benefit from high quality, culturally appropriate, and family-centered supports and services. In the past, trainees have analyzed the varying patterns of the IDEA implementation in each state; developed and implemented an evaluation plan of the National Early Childhood Decision Institute; and gathered information and prepared a written document about MCH core competencies related to the IDEA and NECTAC’s mission. For more information, please visit www.nectac.org.
North Carolina Division of Public Health
The NC Division of Public Health is a state government agency that provides a wide range of North Carolina Public Health programs and services on both the state and local levels to protect and improve the health of the people who live and work in North Carolina. The Division’s MCH-related programs and services are performed by the Women’s and Children’s Health Section (WCH). The mission of the WCH is to assure, promote and protect the health and development of families with emphasis on women, infants, children and youth. WCH programs place a major emphasis on the provision of preventive health services beginning in the pre-pregnancy period and extending throughout childhood. The Section also administers several programs serving individuals who are developmentally disabled or chronically ill. In 2007, a trainee worked in the Children and Youth Branch of the Women’s and Children’s Health Section to create a social marketing program to improve the utility of the statewide mandated Kindergarten Health Assessment (KHA) for public school children. For more information, please visit wch.dhhs.state.nc.us.
UNC Behavioral Healthcare Resource Program
Located within the UNC School of Social Work Jordan Institute for Families, the Behavioral Healthcare Resource Program's mission is to serve as the bridge linking the research-oriented academic setting to the implementation of current initiatives for the public mental health and substance abuse system, through comprehensive and individually tailored training, curricula development, technical assistance, and consultation. The program promotes the following: designs both classroom as well as Internet distance trainings for professionals working with substance abuse addiction issues and adult and adolescent mental health issues, as well as technical assistance and consultation to state and local government substance abuse and mental health systems, as well as private non-profit organizations. In 2007, a trainee created and conducted an assessment of the North Carolina’s Work First/Child Protective Services Substance Abuse Initiative, and also developed a federal grant proposal for a substance abuse and child protective services collaboration. For more information, please visit bhrp.sowo.unc.edu.
Horizons
Horizons is a comprehensive substance abuse program for mothers and women of child bearing age. Funded by the NC Department of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Substance Abuse Services, the program is administered by the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at UNC School of Medicine. It provides several levels of outpatient treatment, including individual counseling, relapse prevention groups, family sessions, and half day and full day intensive outpatient treatment through universal screening at public health and community clinics in six rural counties. Horizons also offers extensive training to community service providers on gender specific, comprehensive substance abuse treatment for women. For more information, please visit www.med.unc.edu/obgyn/horizons.
Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Campaign of NC
Faculty Field Instructor: Sally Swanson
The Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Coalition of North Carolina (APPCNC) is a non-profit, United Way agency based in Chapel Hill whose mission is to support North Carolina communities in preventing adolescent pregnancy through advocacy, collaboration, and education.
APPCNC is the only non-profit agency working to reduce teen pregnancy statewide. Activities include:
Assisting individual counties with mobilizing human and financial resources to reduce local teen pregnancy rates and promote healthy behavior;
Conducting workshops, conferences, and meetings to educate service providers on the latest best practices of
effective teen pregnancy prevention;
Implementing media campaigns directed at parents and teens to encourage discussion and help prevent teen pregnancy;
Gathering and disseminating statistical information necessary to design effective youth development programs; and
Educating public officials on how government can enhance community efforts to prevent teen pregnancy.
Planned Parenthood of Central NC
Faculty Field Instructor: Paige Johnson
Planned Parenthood of Central North Carolina provides education programs, health care, and advocacy to help reduce unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, especially among teens, people with limited incomes, and the uninsured. Offices are located in Chapel Hill and Durham. In 2008, a trainee evaluated the Teen Voices and Joven a Joven Peer Education Programs using pre- and post-program questionnaire data, as well as helped implement Joven a Joven.
Northwest AHEC
Northwest AHEC provides technical assistance, consultation, and training to health coalitions in the region to support their efforts for local health improvement. It is one of nine Area Health Education Centers in North Carolina that work to meet the state's health and health workforce needs by providing educational programs in partnership with academic institutions, health care agencies, and other organizations committed to improving the health of the people of North Carolina.
WINGS
Faculty Field Instructor: Robin Letostak
WINGS is an internatinal non-profit based in La Antigua, Guatemala. The agency provides information, financial resources, and access to reproductive health services to low-income, rural and/or indigenous Guatemalans, enabling them to plan their families, thereby improving their reproductive health and quality of life. In 2008, a trainee conducted an impact evaluation of the Youth WINGS Program, a peer education program that trains adolescents aged 14-19 in the department of Chimaltenango, Guatemala, to provide information and references to reproductive health services to their peers. The trainee designed and implemented the study, which involved running focus groups and collecting questionnaires from past and present participants and interviewing parents.
Pediatric Community Alliance
Faculty Field Instructor: Shannon Bruggen
Pediatric Community Alliance (PCA) is a community coalition in Winston-Salem, NC that developed after focus groups revealed that there were vast unmet needs for children with life-threatening illnesses in Forsyth County. The largest goal was to develop an informational packet, which would be used to teach parents, providers, community stakeholders, and possibly legislatures about pediatric palliative care and its impact of children with life-threatening illnesses. In 2008, an intern drafted and submitted a grant to Fifth Letter, a graphical design company in Winston-Salem. The grant was subsequently awarded to PCA. In addition, the intern drafted several informational documents on topics such as defining pediatric palliative care (PPC), PPC demographics, PPC services, unmet needs in PPC, barriers in PPC, and existing state waiver program for reimbursement of PPC services. These documents will be used as part of the informational packet after Fifth Letter develops a marketing plan for PCA to disseminate pediatric palliative care information.
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