HEALTH

City launches strong baby campaign even as it bemoans state funding cuts

Crocker Stephenson
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett talks about the Strong Baby advertising campaign during a news conference as toddler Ariadne Gomez-Valenciano  stands near the campaign's promotional posters. The campaign encourages families to participate in one of the city's most successful efforts, the Health Department's nurse visiting program for expecting mothers.

Milwaukee officials on Wednesday launched the city's new Strong Baby Campaign, a state-supported initiative to promote participation in the very home visiting programs that are adjusting to cuts in state funding.

The state awarded $160,000 to the Strong Baby Campaign, an innovative social and traditional media effort designed by Serve, an all-volunteer advertising firm that has worked closely with the city as it tries to drive down a stubbornly high infant mortality rate.

Among the most successful tools in lowering that rate, health officials say, has been nurse visiting programs. Among Milwaukee Health Department's visiting programs, two are supported by a grant awarded by the state Department of Children and Families.

Last year's grant was $1.59 million. This year, hoping to expand its visitation programs, the city sought $1.75 million, an increase of $160,000. It was rewarded $1.18 million, a decrease of $410,000.

"That's the irony here, to take money away from the program, right after giving us funding to tell people to come into the program," Mayor Tom Barrett said.

"Fortunately, we may not have to lay off anyone," Health Commissioner Bevan Baker said.

The department has three nursing vacancies, which will go unfilled, he said.

"What we're worried about is that if there is more need, we can't bring on three or four additional nurses."

Joe Scialfa, spokesman for the Department of Children and Families, said the award was scaled back for two reasons. The award is supported by a federal grant that was reduced 20%, he said. And, he said, the Milwaukee visitation program has underperformed.

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In the last five years, the health department had contracted to serve 1,650 families but only had the capacity to serve 1,193 — or 72%.

Federal guidelines, he said, required that agencies have the capacity to serve at least 85%.

"When awarding Milwaukee the new contract, DCF took into account their historical capacity to serve families and right-sized the contract to ensure that other deserving programs were sufficiently funded."

The city health department acknowledged that it has struggled with recruiting and retaining people to work in a demanding field, one in which burnout is common.

But, it said, such visiting programs as Empowering Families in Milwaukee have had sterling results: 94% of infants born in the program were born full-term and 95% were born at a healthy birth weight.

Prematurity and low birth weight are the prime drivers of infant mortality in Milwaukee.

Milwaukee has struggled with one the most lethal infant mortality rates in the nations. And while the city's rate — 9.9 deaths per 1,000 birth — hovers near historic lows, African-American babies die at a rate that is more than three times the rate of white babies. The home visiting program targets communities with highest rates.

"If there are issues (state officials) have with us, we'll work them," Barrett said.

But the state "needs to look at this community and see the racial gap that we have and decide it wants to be a very active partner," Barrett said. "We need the state's active partnership."