Grant Type: Community Grant

The crisis of farmer suicide in Wisconsin cannot be ignored. In 2015, the rate of suicide for farmers was at least two and a half times that of the suicide rate of the general population. This crisis was grounded in the correlation between financial instability, farm foreclosures, high stress, and rates of suicide. Though this needed to be addressed, in southwestern Wisconsin, there was a lack of access to adequate mental health care for farmers. Effective targeted outreach for mental health support was needed to successfully engage members of the farming community in mental health education and interventions in order to improve mental health outcomes for farmers and address the crisis of farmer suicide. This project developed a comprehensive set of community-based education and intervention tools that was integrated into the farming community to address the immediate crisis of suicide and support the overall mental health of farmers. The grant team was successful in providing direct training in suicide and crisis prevention to farmers and their communities, skill building and stress management with farmers, and coordinating with a network of agri-business leaders. The success of this project has resulted in an additional grant to extend and expand this work.

Experts in childbirth education and doula births have gathered decades worth of data that supports doula-assisted birth as a promising model to address maternal infant mortality. However, increasing education on the benefits of utilizing doula services as well as gathering feedback on the best way to provide these services is crucial before doula programming can be enhanced in America. This project aimed to improve the experience of Black women during pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum by building the capability and collaboration of the existing Black doulas in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and increasing the understanding of community needs around doula-assisted births. African American Breastfeeding Network successfully increased community awareness of the health benefits of doula-assisted births among stakeholders, politicians, birthing families, healthcare administrators, policymakers and the general public. They held meetings and collaborated with eight different community-based organizations to hold multiple virtual community conversations. This initiative also increased effective and efficient collaboration between Black doulas in Milwaukee County by providing space to build community.

The goal of this project was to implement an enhanced bike share program in Wisconsin Rapids following the success of River Riders Bike Share, which was introduced in the city to increase physical activity and reduce obesity rates. This project was successful in developing an improved bike share program by engaging with the community, addressing barriers for underrepresented populations and adding accessible bikes and safety measures including bike lanes and signage. These changes resulted in a significant increase in ridership with 548 users utilizing the 30 cruiser bikes and three adaptive bikes. The program’s positive impact was evident in the increased physical activity and reduced air pollution, with an estimated elimination of 268 car trips and 230 pounds of carbon emissions.

Most healthcare education/training programs, including those at medical and pharmacy schools, do not offer courses that specifically focus on health challenges related to mass incarceration. Criminal justice system involvement is heavily stigmatized, which negatively impacts desire to interact with or gain a deeper understanding of current or formerly incarcerated individuals. This project focused on reducing the stigma students may have by providing the opportunity to hear directly from formerly incarcerated individuals. The grantees assembled a cross-campus multidisciplinary class on correctional healthcare that provides an overview of the complicated criminal justice system and matches future graduates to mentors delivering healthcare to inmates. The well-received course resulted in students considering how they might adapt their careers to address the specific health challenges presented in our criminal justice system. As a result, the course Medicine 809-Intersection of Health Care and Incarceration will be offered each spring and is open to medical, nursing, pharmacy, and PA students.

This project will complete the development of the online resource of free and subsidized healthcare and social services. The resource is designed to support the area’s most vulnerable and marginalized residents and connect them with the care and services they need by identifying nearby organizations that are able to provide care and services in real time.

Nearly 1 in 5 children lack access to nutritious food in Dane County, a number that is nearly double the statewide rate and indicates the high need for food access interventions. Children are at an increased risk for learning loss and food insecurity during the summer months, especially low-income youth and youth of color. Summer programming that combines enrichment with good nutrition can help address these issues. The REAP Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) Expansion initiative was designed to implement and evaluate best practices for increasing participation in the SFSP. REAP is applying critical analysis to its past implementation and evaluation activities to ensure that it can continue to offer fun, interactive, substantive educational activities during the summer school break that will reach as many food-insecure youth as possible. Evaluation results showed an overwhelmingly positive response to the program among both adults and children. Public awareness, families fed, and locally-sourced produce increased across the city through marketing and promotion efforts that REAP coordinated, which will be funded in part by the City of Madison moving forward. This project led to significant outcomes that demonstrated a potentially replicable model based on best practices for summer food programming and solid recommendations to further strengthen outcomes of this program.

The West Allis West Milwaukee School District determined that it needed to address and improve its rate of chronic absenteeism in order to improve both academic achievement and health outcomes. The project’s results suggest specific interventions and policy and procedure changes that may help improve chronic absenteeism at the elementary school level.

Educators and public health officials in Door County recognized the growing need to better prepare children with the necessary social skills to be successful in school. The project results suggest that a uniform evidence-based educational program designed for schools and community settings could help teachers, parents and caregivers improve children’s social, emotional and problem-solving skills, thereby increasing readiness for school and learning.

The Smart Meds program uses a Comprehensive Medication Reviews (CMR) to help low income, at risk older adults with chronic health conditions and complex medication regimens in managing their medications safely, in order to reduce adverse drug events and falls that lead to hospitalizations and emergency room visits. This project supported the implementation and evaluation of Smart Meds in pharmacy clinic-based sites within a large local health system. Results, including a decrease in hospital readmission rates for Smart Meds participants, suggest that implementing CMRs into clinical workflow is an effective way to support older adults’ medication management needs.