During her deployment with Leap Pediatric and Adolescent Care, Katie (MPH 2024) worked to increase awareness of community resources and improve understanding of their pediatric patient population. By developing needs assessments, creating newsletters, and highlighting community resources, she worked to improve overall patient well-being.

Path to the UMN MCH Program

I completed my undergraduate degree at the University of Minnesota in Sociology of Law, Criminology, and Justice, where I focused my studies on social change and human behavior. I was exposed to the School of Public Health during this time and had the opportunity to take courses such as Epidemiology and Community Health, leading me to minor in Public Health. I decided to pursue my Master’s in Maternal and Child Health (MCH) after completing public health courses where I learned about the state of maternal health in the US. The increasing maternal mortality and morbidity rates as well as risks that pregnant people face in this country, particularly among historically marginalized populations, deeply troubled me. This realization truly shook me to my core and led me to wonder why these needs were being ignored and what actions could be taken to address these inequities and advocate for change. Prioritizing the well-being and health of individuals has also been important for me in my studies and career, but being able to focus on pregnant individuals and their infants is clearly where my passion lies and is something that I feel called towards. Pursuing a Master’s in MCH has allowed me the opportunity to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to work towards ensuring equitable maternal healthcare access and improved health outcomes for all individuals.

Deployment with Leap Pediatric and Adolescent Care

Leap Pediatric and Adolescent Care is a nonprofit clinic located in St. Paul, Minnesota that is run by Dr. Julia Joseph-Di Caprio and focuses on removing barriers to health and wellness for pediatric children and adolescents. The Leap Clinic offers a wide range of health services from preventive care to illness management, working to meet the unique needs of all patients and families in St. Paul. In addition to providing traditional medical services, Dr. Julia emphasizes the importance of access to well-being services and health approaches that incorporate elements such as nutrition education and mental health support.

During my deployment with Leap, I worked in partnership with Katya Ivanchuk to complete our tasks and projects efficiently. We played on each other’s strengths to create products for Leap Clinic and achieved our objectives through the support of one another.

Analyzing Specific Needs and Support Systems for Adolescents in St. Paul

Through my deployment with the Leap Clinic, I gained significant knowledge about the state of adolescent health in the St. Paul community and how to best support this population. My deployment project’s end goal was to increase awareness and use of community resources such as food education programs and no-cost mental health services. Our focus was on improving knowledge of the services that are available in the community of St. Paul for families who visit the Leap Clinic. An important part of this deployment was to work towards creating a more supportive community through increased partnerships and outreach services. Additionally, the Leap Clinic prioritized the goal of emphasizing services beyond conventional medical services, recognizing that individual well-being is influenced by many factors.

Products Created

We first completed a literature review to evaluate what informal resources, such as communication via social media platforms, were most commonly used to address adolescent health issues. We also identified developments, trends, and barriers adolescents were experiencing when connecting to professional healthcare services. The literature review involved us specifically researching ways to improve the social and mental well-being of adolescents. It included an analysis of many informal sources such as social media platforms, community services, and school-based support services. Additionally, this literature review assessed what health trends and barriers were being experienced by adolescents in both the state of Minnesota and the city of St. Paul.

I also helped create a needs assessment survey for the Leap Clinic to administer to patients and families. The survey was developed to gather valuable insights directly from the community, specifically those who access the Leap Clinic for health services. This survey needed to be made available in both a traditional paper-based method for in-person administration and an online form to encourage greater participation. Additionally, to accommodate all individuals, the survey was translated into three languages – English, Spanish, and Somali. With the results from the survey, the Leap Clinic can tailor its initiatives and allocate resources according to the specific needs of the community, such as requests for therapy or mental health services to use trauma-informed care models.

Some examples of questions from the needs assessment survey created for the Leap Clinic include: 

• “Using substances means doing things like drinking alcohol, taking marijuana or other THC products, or using illegal drugs. What can help young people avoid the use of substances?”
• “Do you think your family and other families would benefit from resources about young people’s use of social media and technology, like TikTok, and how it might affect how they feel and their relationships?”
• “Would it be helpful to know about community resources for wellness, including mindfulness, healthy eating, and being active?”

We also helped create resource lists for the Leap Clinic that listed services such as mental health support, nutrition education, food assistance, non-conventional health services, and resources that were culturally competent and serve specific populations and identities. Each resource was researched and carefully chosen to ensure relevance and credibility, to assist adolescents and families in making informed decisions about their health. The creation of resource lists that included more than typical health services, such as dental or eye care, was important to the Leap Clinic and will work to help create stronger support systems for the community.

We also crafted a newsletter for the Leap Clinic to release during May (National Adolescent Health Month) that featured upcoming community events, available community services, and other news such as interesting research findings around adolescent health. The goal of the newsletter was to increase awareness of services and events in the community of St. Paul and to provide useful information for patients and families who visit the Leap Clinic to improve health and well-being.

Empowering Communities: Increasing Awareness of Support Systems

I applied the L.I.F.E. framework frequently during my deployment with the Leap Clinic, especially the competencies of Family-Professional Partnerships and Equity. The resource list to increase community awareness of support services and systems, as well as the newsletter and needs assessment survey, all included aspects of the L.I.F.E. framework. The leadership competencies of Ethics, Critical Thinking, Communication, Working with Communities and Systems, Family-Professional Relationships, and Cultural Competency were all relevant and applied throughout the work completed during this deployment. Specifically, focusing on increasing equitable outcomes and awareness of culturally competent services that serve individual well-being was a value that we followed while creating all the products during this deployment. Additionally, working with the community of St. Paul through communication with families that visit the Leap Clinic and finding new ways to reach the community, such as through our needs assessment survey, were a critical part of my deployment. The leadership competencies that the L.I.F.E. framework includes were always in the back of our minds and something that informed our practices and decisions during the deployment.

BIO

Katie graduated from the MCH MPH program in 2024 with a minor in Health Services Research, Policy, and Administration. Katie received her BS in Sociology of Law, Criminology, and Justice with a minor in Public Health from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. She is currently working with Fourth Trimester Doc on a social media campaign, emphasizing the importance of improving access to high-quality, in-home maternal healthcare services for all pregnant individuals and reinventing how these care services are provided. In her spare time, she enjoys baking, gardening, and spending time with her family, friends, and two cats. Since graduating, Katie hopes to continue her work in empowering and informing pregnant individuals on such a transformative period of their lives through advocacy and community engagement.

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