First In-Person PAC Meeting Unites Leaders in Harrisburg to Take Action for Maternal Health
Type: News
Focus Area: Women’s Health
In-person attendees at the PAC meeting in Harrisburg on September 4.
Leaders from across Pennsylvania came together in Harrisburg on September 4 to advance maternal health solutions, marking the first in-person gathering of the Pennsylvania Perinatal Action Collaborative (PAC). The PAC, a multi-disciplinary group dedicated to unifying and advancing maternal health initiatives throughout the state, is tasked with executing the Maternal Health Strategic Plan (MHSP), which seeks to improve the health outcomes of pregnant and postpartum individuals in Pennsylvania.
To effectively implement the MHSP, the PAC consists of priority teams focused on five key areas: increasing access to high-quality care, supporting behavioral health and substance use disorder needs, improving rural health and maternity care deserts, addressing health-related social needs and expanding and diversifying the healthcare workforce. Over the summer, the first three priority teams met to develop strategies to implement selected recommendations from the MHSP, which were presented at the September meeting by each priority team’s chair.
Strategies included expanding access to mobile clinics, utilizing pharmacists to increase screenings and referrals to care, developing regional collaboratives to improve referral and payment of non-medical support services, and utilizing technology to improve screening and referral for maternal mental health and substance use disorder.
From left to right: Sharee Livingston, DO, Ob/Gyn Department Chair, UPMC Lititz and Board Member and Founder, PatientsRWaiting, and a PAC co-chairs; Dr. Valerie Arkoosh, Pennsylvania Secretary of Human Services; Sara Goulet, Special Advisor to the Secretary, PA Department of Human Services, and a PAC co-chair; and Maria Montoro Edwards, PhD, President and CEO, Maternal and Family Health Services Inc., a PAC cochair.
Additionally, PAC members learned more about existing programs in Pennsylvania that enhance perinatal health and wellbeing and support the strategies identified by the priority teams. Keith Cromwell, senior program director at Central PA Connect Health Innovation Exchange, provided an overview of PA Navigate. PA Navigate connects Pennsylvanians with health and social care services in their local community, including food, housing, transportation, and more. Maria Montoro Edwards, PhD, President and CEO of Maternal Health Services, Inc. provided an overview of the Northeast Regional Maternal Health Coalition. The Coalition is one of four in the commonwealth tasked with collaborating with local organizations, individuals with lived experience, community members, and health care professionals to collect data, feedback and implement recommendations from the Pennsylvania Maternal Mortality Review Committee. Dr. Ratika Baweja, reproductive and behavioral health psychiatrist at Penn State Health presented a overview of the PA Perinatal Telephonic Psychiatric Consultation Services Program (Perinatal TiPS). Perinatal TiPS provides telephonic consultation, care coordination, bridge therapy, and provider education to improve care of perinatal mental health and SUD. The program is administered regionally across the commonwealth through UPMC, Penn State Health, and Penn Medicine/ Philadelphia Department of Public Health.
JHF recognizes that the voices of those directly impacted are essential to creating effective solutions. At the fall meeting, the PAC introduced its newly formed Lived Experience Team, a group representing both geographic diversity and a wide range of challenges faced during pregnancy, birth, and postpartum. Members shared their powerful stories and provided valuable feedback to strengthen the implementation of strategies developed by the priority teams.
In preparation for their work this fall, PAC members discussed the MHSP recommendations to address health-related social needs and to expand and diversify the healthcare workforce. Valerie Arkoosh, MD, MPH, Secretary of the Department of Human Services, provided closing remarks, thanking the PAC members for their time and efforts to improving maternal health in the commonwealth.
The PAC is facilitated by JHF and supported by the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s Health Resources and Services Administration-funded Maternal Health Innovation Program. Learn more about the PAC and funding opportunities here.
