Chichester, 15 01-22

Family Included: Global Alliance

MATERNITY ASSIST

Duncan Fisher, OBE | Family Included Global Alliance

Chichester, January 2015


Maternity Assist• a project to engage families during pregnancy. [Rename in Chichester?!]

Family Included: Global Alliance•A new international membership by Prof Mary Steen and Duncan Fisher to promote family engagement and use of digital comms to this end. St Richard’s a member.



Engaging with the family: better health outcomes

•Nutrition•Mental health•Relationships and family violence•Smoking & alcohol•Baby death


Engaging with the family: research•Chile study, 2012, 6200 families: correlation between health and family functioning, esp. mental health•Oxford study, 2013, 4600 mothers: use of maternity care and maternal health postpartum correlates with family support.•Mexican American study, 2013: correlation between low partner support and higher cortisol reactivity in infants born to stressed mothers.


Engaging with the family: mechanisms•Carers more influenced by family than by professionals•Community of care around infant is a fund of knowledge•Fathers have under-estimated capacities to care – makes a bigger difference in disadvantaged families



Using digital communications – the evidence

• Improves use of services (Higgs et al. 2014)•Should be integrated with health and family support services (van Heerden et al. 2012; Labrique et al. 2013)•To be effective, needs to combine info with interactivity and building social support (Briscoe & Aboud 2012; Rotheram-Borus et al. 2012)


Using digital communications – the evidence“Mobile technologies offer the opportunity to support families directly in managing their own health, while linking their self-management efforts to healthcare providers and other resources.”(Rotheram-Borus et al. 2012)Ability to engage with families: the biggest opportunity of digital communication?


Building a relationship

•Recruit expectant mothers and fathers and other during pregnancy. Build trust.•Hand over relationship when baby is born (or when pregnancy ends otherwise).•Build relationship through till youngest child is five.


Key feature 1: Local control

• Every aspect of configuration• All content: created or curated



Key feature 2: Other family members




Key feature 3: Multi-channel = inclusivityKey feature 4: Two-way communication• Broadcasting: Emails / Twitter

• Conversation: AAQ / Twitter / text / chat• On-line searchable library• Digital questionnaires


Key feature 5: Linked to service records


Types of content

• Health related – care pathway• Social – youth / housing /

benefits• Community – public health / children• Encourage support within families• Entertainment




Design steps: “lean start-up”

• Define start-up objectives – e.g. bonding• Set up “digital laboratory”

• Put in place agile responsive management • Work out how to achieve objectives • (Small) trials, (small) errors, fast

response

Chichester, 15 01-22

Health & Medicine

obe family

family functioning

family engagement

family members

global alliance chichester

global alliance key

mental health oxford

inclusivity key feature