How St. Joseph County allotted nearly $1M in public health funding
The St. Joseph County Department of Health will target several public health issues this year with nearly $1 million in state grant money, a portion of which will fund a new University of Notre Dame program to lower the number of mothers who die in the year after giving birth.
Through Health First Indiana, a legislative initiative passed last year to bolster underfunded local health departments, more than $75 million will go to counties across the state in 2024. That amount will double to $150 million the following year.
The St. Joseph County Council last month approved a roughly $974,000 spending plan for 2024 that allocates the bulk of the money to chronic disease prevention as well as maternal and infant health. Three other problems to be addressed are schoolchildren's mental and physical wellness, infectious disease surveillance and tobacco use among adults and teens. In total, 19 organizations received money.
Notre Dame will use $65,000 of about $300,000 devoted to the health of mothers and children to address a concerning statistic: In Indiana, 80% of maternal deaths related to pregnancy occur in the year following a birth, also known as the postpartum period. Unlike complications during birth, most of these deaths are preventable.
A new Pop Up Pregnancy and Family
Village program to begin in August will bring together community health and wellness professionals in monthly onestop shops in South Bend and Mishawaka, the university announced Monday. By offering free care to attendees, organizers hope to help women in underserved communities who might otherwise not receive care.
Led by Yenupini Joyce Adams, a professor who oversees maternal and child health issues at Notre Dame's Eck Institute for Global Health, the pilot program will connect mothers to ongoing care and support. Despite the alarming percentage of pregnancy-related deaths that occur in the postpartum period, it's typical in the U.S. for women to visit a doctor just once about six weeks after giving birth.
Though Beacon Community Impact and Saint Joseph Health System will join the county in supporting the monthly sessions, the university is interested in gaining more partners.
Health professionals and wellness organizations are invited to an April 10 information session from 9-10:30 a.m. at the St. Joseph County Public Library to learn how to participate.
“Access to postpartum care services should be available to anyone, anywhere …,” Adams said in a Monday press release. “No woman should have to sacrifice her life to give life.”
Other local maternal and child health initiatives funded by the Health First
Adams
money are a Beacon Health System initiative to curb high blood pressure during pregnancy and a Women's Care Center program that will offer mothers oneon-one care through the three trimesters before giving birth and the threemonth period that follows. The Northern
Indiana Maternal and Child Health network also will receive money to increase access to reproductive care.
Email South Bend Tribune city reporter Jordan Smith at JTsmith@gannett.com. Follow him on X: @jordantsmith09