National program selects infant mortality task force as first Indiana partner

Friday, March 7, 2014

A new eight-county task force that includes Putnam County will spend the next year developing ways to bring down Indiana's infant mortality rate.

The National Leadership Academy for the Public's Health has selected the Terre Haute-based Rural Health Innovation Collaborative to lead the West Central Indiana Infant Mortality Reduction Task Force.

With 7.7 deaths per 1,000 live births, Indiana had the nation's sixth highest infant mortality rate in 2011. Gov. Mike Pence called the ranking "deplorable" in challenging participants in a statewide summit last fall to "think fresh" about ways to reduce deaths in children's first year of life.

Stephanie Laws, executive director of the collaborative, said the project fits seamlessly with the organization's mission and overall strategy to ensure a system-based solution to improve the health and wellbeing of its communities.

"It is our hope that we will positively impact infant mortality rates and identified social determinants of health," Laws said. "We are very excited to receive training and mentorship to build, sustain and spread public health leadership capacity for the purpose of mentoring communities throughout the Wabash Valley."

The task force will focus on an eight-county area around Terre Haute but members say their work will have statewide impact. Infant death rates in Putnam and five other counties (Clay, Greene, Owen, Parke and Vermillion) exceed the state rate. Of the eight counties, only Vigo and Sullivan have rates below the state average.

Arthur Logsdon of the Indiana State Department of Health, said the department "is dedicated to ensuring that a successful model is developed that can be replicated throughout the state."

The department has assigned one staff member to the task force, which also consists of Laws; Jack Turman, dean of Indiana State University's College of Nursing, Health, and Human Services; and Elizabeth Burrows, chief executive officer of Vermillion-Parke Community Health Center.

The National Leadership Academy for the Public's Health works with and trains multi-sector teams through an applied, collaborative leadership development model. The academy is funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The program is implemented by the Center for Health Leadership and Practice, part of the Public Health Institute, and will provide training and support for one year, focusing on two tracks: Development of leadership skills and team-based collaborative work aimed at affecting changes in policies and systems.

"This program will impart population health teams with the skills to lead across sectors and collaboratively solve complex population health problems in innovate ways," said Dr. Carmen Rita Nevarez, vice president for external relations and director of the Center for Health Leadership and Practice.

The infant mortality task force is one of 29 teams from around the country chosen to participate in the third year of the national health leadership academy. It is the first Indiana team to be selected for inclusion in the three-year-old program.

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