Purposes for Telling the Story
There are three purposes for telling the story of your local data and intended initiatives.
Steps for telling the story to stakeholders:
Clearly state the problem in terms of observable fact: “infant mortality rate is three times as high among Black mothers as among White mothers,” “prematurity accounts for 80% of Black excess deaths”.
Clearly state directions for prevention actions with the most potential for impact as suggested by local vital records data: “Among Blacks, 21% of prematurity is attributable to higher risk among unmarried mothers, 15% of prematurity is attributable to higher risk among mothers with birth spacing less than 18 months, and 14% of prematurity is attributable to higher risk of mothers in xy neighborhoods .”
Provide examples of hypothesized causal relationships that can explain these findings, and examples of evidence based programs that can address the underlying causes: Make it clear that these are examples, and invite your audience(s) to question and interpret all of this information based on their lived experience or other information they may have. Example interpretation: “Unmarried mothers in our Black community tend to be young women with grandparents in poverty, so we feel that in our community being unmarried is a proxy for intergenerational poverty. Can the data confirm this?” The health department or any stakeholder may provide information (related to the above problems and prevention areas) from multiple sources including local data, local case studies, expert opinion, scientific knowledge, and evaluations of programs/interventions.
Resources
This list is by no means exhaustive, and CityMatCH recognizes that many experts and resources exist outside of this list.
Articles
- Chao, S. M., Donatoni, G., Bemis, C., Donovan, K., Harding, C., Davenport, D., Gilbert, C., Kasehagen, L., Peck, M. G. (2010). Integrated approaches to improve birth outcomes: Perinatal periods of risk, infant mortality review, and the Los Angeles mommy and baby project. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 14(6), 827-837.
- Peck, M. G., Sappenfield, W. M., & Skala, J. (2010.) Perinatal periods of risk: A community approach for using data to improve women and infants’ health. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 14(6), 864-874.
- Sappenfield, W. M., Peck, M. G., Gilbert, C. S., Haynatzka, V. R., Bryant, T 3rd. (2010). Perinatal periods of risk: Analytic preparation and phase 1 analytic methods for investigating feto-infant mortality. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 14(6), 838-850.
- Sappenfield, W. M., Peck, M. G., Gilbert, C. S., Haynatzka, V. R., Bryant, T 3rd. (2010). Perinatal periods of risk: Phase 2 analytic methods for further investigating feto-infant mortality. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 14(6), 851-863.
E-Book
- Telling Engaging Stories with Data. (2016). Live Stories.
Champions come in all shapes and sizes, and influence in any number of ways. One thing they all have in common is that they are advocates for an issue, a community, a policy, etc. In the field of public health, a champion will most likely be someone with influence in the health care field, certain communities, or political realm. Your coalition should also think outside the box as there can be champions in the unlikeliest of places and people! To read more about identifying and engaging public health champions, click Read More.