NEEDED: Grassroots Leaders to Lead Systems Change Efforts that Reduce Infant Mortality

2020 ◽  
pp. 016059762096974
Author(s):  
Nathan Marquam ◽  
Ashley Irby ◽  
Nancy Swigonski ◽  
Kara Casavan ◽  
Jack Turman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Infant Mortality ◽  
Birth Outcomes ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Marginalized Communities ◽  
Grassroots Movements ◽  
Reduce Infant Mortality ◽  
Reduction Strategies

The death of an infant devastates a mother, family and community. The United States has one of the highest infant mortality rates among the world’s high income nations. Infant mortality is a key indicator of a population’s health and societal well-being, yet interventions aimed at improving societal well-being are rarely a priority when devising infant mortality reduction strategies. Historically, grassroots movements have been critical in advancing social change to improve women’s health and empowerment in marginalized communities. Understanding strategic and infrastructure elements of these grassroots movements is a critical first step to efficiently growing USA grassroots movements to address social systems associated with poor birth outcomes. We provide an analysis of the diverse array of grassroots structures and strategies utilized to improve maternal and child health outcomes. It is time for grassroots movements to form and be recognized as vital players in efforts to sustainably reduce infant mortality in the United States. It is essential to foster grassroots leaders and movements that improve long standing social structures that contribute to poor birth outcomes. The personal and community knowledge of these leaders and community members are desperately needed to save women and infants in our nation.

scholarly journals The Impact of Invisibility on the Health of Migrant Farmworkers in the Southeastern United States: A Case Study from Georgia

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kari M. Bail ◽  
Jennifer Foster ◽  
Safiya George Dalmida ◽  
Ursula Kelly ◽  
Maeve Howett ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Educational System ◽  
Subjective Experience ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Migrant Farmworkers ◽  
The Impact

Migrant farmworkers represent one of the most marginalized and underserved populations in the United States. Acculturation theory cannot be easily mapped onto the transnational experience of migrant farmworkers, who navigate multiple physical and cultural spaces yearly, and who are not recognized by the state they constitute, “the Citizen’s Other” (Kerber, 2009). This paper utilizes narrative analysis of a case study to illustrate, through the relationship of the narrator to migrant farmworkers and years of participant observation by the coauthors, how isolation from family and community, as well as invisibility within institutions, affect the health and well-being of migrant farmworkers in southeastern Georgia. Invisibility of farmworkers within institutions, such as health care, the educational system, social services, domestic violence shelters, and churches contribute to illness among farmworkers. The dominant American discourse surrounding immigration policy addresses the strain immigrants put on the social systems, educational system, and the health care system. Nurses who work with farmworkers are well positioned to bring the subjective experience of farmworkers to light, especially for those engaged with socially just policies. Those who contribute to the abundant agricultural produce that feeds Americans deserve the recognition upon which social integration depends.

scholarly journals Why Is Infant Mortality Higher in the United States than in Europe?

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 89-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice Chen ◽  
Emily Oster ◽  
Heidi Williams
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Infant Mortality ◽  
Birth Outcomes ◽  
The United States ◽  
Similar Data ◽  
Lower Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Lower Socioeconomic ◽  
The Us ◽  
Differential Reporting

The United States has higher infant mortality than peer countries. In this paper, we combine microdata from the United States with similar data from four European countries to investigate this US infant mortality disadvantage. The US disadvantage persists after adjusting for potential differential reporting of births near the threshold of viability. While the importance of birth weight varies across comparison countries, relative to all comparison countries the United States has similar neonatal (<1 month) mortality but higher postneonatal (1–12 months) mortality. We document similar patterns across census divisions within the United States. The postneonatal mortality disadvantage is driven by poor birth outcomes among lower socioeconomic status individuals. (JEL I12, I14, I32, J14)

scholarly journals Stigmatized places as therapeutic landscapes

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer T. Mokos
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Urban Rivers ◽  
Therapeutic Landscapes ◽  
Marginalized Communities ◽  
Health And Well Being ◽  
River Bottom

Urban rivers in the United States have frequently been sites of long-term homeless encampments. Recent efforts to ‘restore’ these marginal waterways have focused on removing such camps, an approach that is justified in terms of concern for the health of both waterways and people. This article explores the intersection of landscape health and human health, based on twelve months of ethnographic research on the ecological restoration of the Ventura River in southern California. I argue that river-bottom camps contribute to the health and well-being of residents by helping them resist social exclusion and mitigate experiences of violence and stigma. It is important to recognize this complexity so that logics of exclusion are not unintentionally reproduced in how landscapes are understood, which can legitimate actions, such as camp removals, that cause marginalized communities additional harm. Embracing the complexity of therapeutic landscapes opens up possibilities for more just ways of restoring the health of human and nonhuman natures.

THE FORCES OF SOCIAL CHANGE

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1966 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
A. YANKAUER
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Infant Mortality ◽  
New Deal ◽  
Death Rate ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
The United States ◽  
Reduce Infant Mortality ◽  
The New Deal

"A nation's greatness is measured by its concern for the health and welfare of its people. Throughout our democracy this commitment has grown and deepened. . . . With these programs and those I am recommending today, we can move closer to attainment of our goals: to bring every child the care he needs to develop his capacity to the fullest; to reduce infant mortality, concentrating particularly on those minority groups whose death rate is highest." These are words that the President of the United States addressed to the Eighty-ninth Congress in March 1966. They reflect the forces of social change whose spirit and legislative expression have shaken the domestic order to a greater degree than at any time since the early days of the New Deal.

Flower Power: Assessing the Impact of the Magnolia Project on Reducing Poor Birth Outcomes in an At-Risk Neighborhood

2005 ◽  
Vol os-22 (2) ◽  
pp. 75-90
Author(s):  
Jeffry A. Will ◽  
Irma Hall ◽  
Tim Cheney ◽  
Maura Driscoll
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Mortality Rate ◽  
Infant Mortality ◽  
Birth Outcomes ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
The United States ◽  
Infant Mortality Rate ◽  
Local Health ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
The Impact

The past decade has seen tremendous improvements in the health status of children in the United States. In 1992, the infant mortality rate in the United States was at 8.5 per 1,000 live births. By 2002 that figure had declined to 6.9. However, the infant mortality rate for Jacksonville/Duval County in Northeast Florida has consistently remained higher than both the national and state rates, particularly for minority populations. The Magnolia Project was developed by a consortium of local health care providers and concerned community agencies to address racial disparities in birth outcomes. The Magnolia Project provides well-woman clinic and case management services to women in the childbearing years residing in the urban core, where infant mortality is highest. In this paper, we examine the Magnolia Project to assess the impact that this initiative has made on the target community in providing health services and prevention strategies to reduce poor birth outcomes. Included in such services are strategies aimed at reducing factors associated with infant mortality. These strategies have resulted in improved birth outcomes for women associated with the Magnolia Project, including a low incidence of infant mortality and low birth weight babies for participants.

Dialectical Thinking and Psychological Well-Being in Morocco, China, and the United States

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cassidy Bibo ◽  
Julie Spencer-Rodgers ◽  
Benaissa Zarhbouch ◽  
Mostafa Bouanini ◽  
Kaiping Peng
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Dialectical Thinking ◽  
Psychological Well Being

The link between coronavirus, anxiety, and religious beliefs in the United States and United Kingdom

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Rigoli
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Stressful Event ◽  
Cultural Implications ◽  
The Impact

Research has shown that stress impacts on people’s religious beliefs. However, several aspects of this effect remain poorly understood, for example regarding the role of prior religiosity and stress-induced anxiety. This paper explores these aspects in the context of the recent coronavirus emergency. The latter has impacted dramatically on many people’s well-being; hence it can be considered a highly stressful event. Through online questionnaires administered to UK and USA citizens professing either Christian faith or no religion, this paper examines the impact of the coronavirus crisis upon common people’s religious beliefs. We found that, following the coronavirus emergency, strong believers reported higher confidence in their religious beliefs while non-believers reported increased scepticism towards religion. Moreover, for strong believers, higher anxiety elicited by the coronavirus threat was associated with increased strengthening of religious beliefs. Conversely, for non-believers, higher anxiety elicited by the coronavirus thereat was associated with increased scepticism towards religious beliefs. These observations are consistent with the notion that stress-induced anxiety enhances support for the ideology already embraced before a stressful event occurs. This study sheds light on the psychological and cultural implications of the coronavirus crisis, which represents one of the most serious health emergencies in recent times.

Consular Protection and Solidarity across Borders

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Délano Alonso
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Migrant Populations ◽  
Policy Goals ◽  
Large Populations ◽  
Mexican Government ◽  
Working Together

This chapter demonstrates how Latin American governments with large populations of migrants with precarious legal status in the United States are working together to promote policies focusing on their well-being and integration. It identifies the context in which these processes of policy diffusion and collaboration have taken place as well as their limitations. Notwithstanding the differences in capacities and motivations based on the domestic political and economic contexts, there is a convergence of practices and policies of diaspora engagement among Latin American countries driven by the common challenges faced by their migrant populations in the United States and by the Latino population more generally. These policies, framed as an issue of rights protection and the promotion of migrants’ well-being, are presented as a form of regional solidarity and unity, and are also mobilized by the Mexican government as a political instrument serving its foreign policy goals.

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