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Partners Announce Project to Combat Infant Mortality in
Toledo Neighborhoods Ohio Department of Health Invests
$850,000 in Healthy Lucas County Project
The Ohio Department of
Health is investing $850,000 in a Healthy Lucas County
project to combat infant mortality in Toledo’s central city
area neighborhoods that includes working with residents to
determine what they need to improve health and well-being,
the partners announced while marking September as National
Infant Mortality Awareness Month.
The project also involves
recruiting 150 pregnant women who live in seven census
tracts in the 43604, 43608, 43609, 43611 and 43620 ZIP codes
into home-visiting programs to support women in delivering
healthy babies. These women also are eligible for rental
assistance for up to 12 months and up to $500 for
transportation, car care and utilities.
The grant funding is part
of a nearly $40 million investment in Ohio’s 2018-19 budget
to address infant mortality statewide. The Healthy Lucas
County project was one of three chosen for the Ohio
Department of Health’s Infant Vitality Community Intensive
Pilot Project.
“The most effective infant
mortality reduction strategies are implemented at the local
level,” said Sandra Oxley, Chief of Maternal, Child and
Family Health at the Ohio Department of Health. “Working
with local partners to identify evidence-based strategies
provides the greatest opportunity to impact the community.”
The grant was awarded to
the Hospital Council of Northwest Ohio, which coordinates
the project and the Healthy Lucas County coalition of
community health improvement organizations. Key partners in
the project include Mercy Health, Neighborhood Health
Association, ProMedica, Toledo-Lucas County Health
Department, their home-visiting programs and the Northwest
Ohio Pathways HUB care coordination system.
As part of the project,
four AmeriCorps service members are being hired to help work
with central city area residents to determine what they need
to improve health and well-being. Project partners also are
inviting key organizational and resident leaders to take
part in collaborative decision making by serving on Healthy
Lucas County’s Neighbor Advisory Council.
“We really want to
understand what these neighborhoods need to thrive, and that
starts by getting input from our neighbors and truly
listening to their concerns and suggestions,” said Selena
Coley, project coordinator at the Hospital Council of
Northwest Ohio’s Northwest Ohio Pathways HUB.
In 2016, the infant
mortality rate for African American babies in Lucas County
was 14.2 per 1,000 live births, nearly three times as high
as the infant mortality rate for white Lucas County babies
at 5.0 per 1,000 live births, according to Ohio Department
of Health statistics.
The Healthy Lucas County
project enhances existing efforts by home-visiting programs
to reduce preterm birth rates and low birth weight rates in
the seven census tracts, which were chosen after Lucas
County data related to infant mortality was assessed. More
than half of the 11,372 residents in these census tracts are
African American, and 78 percent of female residents are
living below 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Level,
according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The area in the map below
indicates the location of the project’s seven Lucas County
census tracts in Toledo: 22, 23, 27, 28, 29, 30 and 103. |
