Case Study 1 - Family Health and Lifestyle Service, MAMTA
Public Health commissioned the Family Health and Lifestyle 0-19 Service, which integrates seven services all working with children and families, with Marmot Principles and proportionate universalism at its core.
The service, delivered by South Warwickshire Foundation Trust includes:
- Health Visiting
- Infant Feeding
- Family Nurse Partnership
- School Nursing
- Be Active, Be Healthy (family weight management)
- Stop Smoking In Pregnancy
- MAMTA, a targeted and culturally sensitive service delivered by FWT - a centre for women (a community organisation)
The service identified an inequality in outcomes for mothers and babies from ethnic minority groups. Using proportionate universalism as a model, MAMTA as a targeted service worked hard to re-design its core offer within its existing resources to increase access.
MAMTA now offer all pregnant women from a minority ethnic background in Coventry support and ‘Parent Craft’ run in conjunction with University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust maternity services.
Women are then triaged and offered a more targeted pathway proportionate to their needs, for example, women who are new to the country, where English is not their first language, or women who have more complex needs.
MAMTA has also received some additional funding recently from ‘Start for Life’ and Family Hubs which enabled them to enhance support with targeted groups around infant feeding and perinatal mental health, including baby massage.
Successes
- Approximately 1,100 pregnant women were contacted and supported with key public health messages.
- Over 70% of the women supported by MAMTA had recently arrived in the UK.
- Every woman reported increased knowledge, confidence, and support to access health depending on her needs.
- When followed up after the baby was born, many women commented positively on the support being vital for their wellbeing.
- Links were made with partners and services around the social determinants of health, such as housing, skills, and income.
Service users' comments
“The sessions were very clear and explained in the simplest way. Didn’t know so much about it but the midwife explained and mentioned how important and educative it will be”
“I am new to this country and receiving a call made me happy and I now know that there are a lot of things available”.
“As I am new to the country, all the information was really useful, thank you”
Visit the Family Health and Lifestyle Service website for more information.