Hello all and thanks for visiting this site. 2012 begins the eighth year of the CHIMC project. The project has taken huge strides since it began in 2005. Since then many things have happened. For instance, the project expanded its catchment areas to include 53205 and 53206. This expansion allowed CHIMC to reach families who shared similar socioeconomic statuses to our pilot study in 53208 and 53210. At the beginning, CHIMC stood for Community Health Improvement in Metcalfe and Concordia, but was later changed to reflect the expansion into the additional zip codes. The project has also gone through three interventions: Phase 1– Education, Phase 2–Social Marketing and Phase 3–Behavioral Change Model. These interventions are integral and ongoing in improving parent participant’s attitudes towards immunizations based on preliminary data.
The outreach team continues to do parent education sessions, CHIMC billboards are displayed throughout the catchment area, and social marketing materials are still accessible. Staff is still enrolling parent participants in the Behavioral Change Model workshops. By the end of February, the project intends to complete the project goals for its five year grant. This means recruiting 1,500 children participants by February 2012 and completing our Behavioral Change Model. The goal is to have this data completed and evaluated for a dissemination grant for 2013. We hope that this year, with help from community and academic partners, we will be able to use our data and disseminate our findings in 2013.
CHIMC Goes to DC
The American Public Health Association (APHA) is the oldest and most diverse organization of public health professionals in the world working to improve public health since 1872. APHA represents a broad array of health professionals and others who care about their own health and the health of others in their communities. This year CHIMC was once again selected to the APHA for their 139th Annual meeting which was held in Washington DC. CHIMC was selected to present its own findings in an oral session called “Walking across boundaries- leveraging local knowledge in the co-design of social marketing messages. Accompanying Dr. Gray-Murray this year was Michelle Watts, Meggan Leary and community member Dorothy Smith.
Dr. Gray-Murray highlighted the process of our Social Marketing Campaign during a break out session on Community-Based Health Communications Campaigns. She spoke about the initial focus groups that constructed the campaign involving the imagery and messaging of our “Take Control” message. Emphasis was placed on the necessity of culturally-informed messages and the added value that’s derived from transitioning parents from users to co-designers of the message. The break out session was very well received. After the session, members from the audience requested more information about CHIMC. Overall CHIMC was well represented and hopes, with more publications, that CHIMC will be able to attend future APHA conferences.
3rd Intervention:Behavior Change Model (Parenting Workshop)
Navigating the health care system and understanding how it works can be challenging to any parent. This summer CHIMC has put together a series of parenting workshops created to help parents cope and become more efficient in healthcare settings. The workshops require a seven week commitment meeting once a week. Parents who have attended a majority of the sessions seemed to enjoy the materials covered each week and were very knowledgeable with one another. One parent said that she recommends the workshops to any parent, especially young mothers with little knowledge of the healthcare system.
The workshops are determined not just to teach parents to be more efficient in healthcare settings but to empower them to become health advocates themselves. For completing the parent workshops parents received certificates for their commitment in learning how to excel in health care settings. To date, CHIMC has completed three different cohorts. The outreach team is still planning on adding additional cohorts in the near future. Any parent who might be interested in the workshops should seek any outreach team member for more details.
CHIMC
