gms | German Medical Science

4th International Conference of the German Society of Midwifery Science (DGHWi)

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Hebammenwissenschaft e. V.

16.02.2018, Mainz

Early interventions – midwifery research

Meeting Abstract

  • corresponding author Britta Bacchetta - Protestant University of Applied Sciences Berlin, Germany
  • Joana Streffing - Protestant University of Applied Sciences Berlin, Germany
  • Dorothea Tegethoff - Protestant University of Applied Sciences Berlin, Germany
  • Melita Grieshop - Protestant University of Applied Sciences Berlin, Germany

German Association of Midwifery Science. 4th International Meeting of the German Association of Midwifery Science (DGHWi). Mainz, 16.-16.02.2018. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2018. Doc18dghwiP02

doi: 10.3205/18dghwi08, urn:nbn:de:0183-18dghwi089

This is the English version of the article.
The German version can be found at: http://www.egms.de/de/meetings/dghwi2018/18dghwi08.shtml

Published: February 13, 2018

© 2018 Bacchetta et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. See license information at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.


Text

Background and research question: Through the implementation of professorships in midwifery science at German universities, midwives are in a position to build research centers and conduct research in areas relevant to midwifery practice. Those include questions around the implementation of Early Interventions.

Activities connected to Early Interventions improve parent’s competences and contribute to better health in children in the first few years of their life [1]. However, the positive effects of those interventions can more often be seen in parents living in less difficult circumstances. Socially disadvantaged families and families living in very difficult circumstances benefit less from the support provided. However, using low-threshold approaches such as preventative ‘welcoming programmes’ after childbirth, it is possible to identify those families and offer additional support when needed [1].

As part of welcoming programmes “family-vouchers” are given to young parents. These vouchers can be used to participate in health promoting and preventative services related to Early Interventions at reduced cost. The programmes are based either on a universal or on a selective prevention approach. It remains uncertain which approach is more suitable to reach particularly socially disadvantaged families and which barriers prevent parents from using the services offered.

Considering these challenges, an evaluation was carried out using a midwifery perspective. The centre of interest was to identify the most suitable access paths to reach the target group as well as the identification of barriers that hinder families accessing services connected to the family voucher.

Methodology: The concepts of the voucher projects and their implementation were examined in a formative evaluation using triangulation of data [2] from a qualitative and quantitative analysis of documents along with expert interviews, focussing on different prevention approaches, project structures and the utilisation of the vouchers. The research used the Criteria for good practice in health promotion addressing social determinants developed by the German cooperation network ‘Equity in Health’ [3] as a theoretical reference.

Results: The presentation will report on results regarding the access paths and the reachability of the target group, as well as on the utilisation of the vouchers and the concept of participation in development of the services and options for further development of project. The chosen access paths have proven to be very suitable. However, the definition of the target group and measures to identify the families belonging to the target group remain conceptually vague. This results in a lack of data related to the usage of the vouchers especially regarding vulnerable families. Experts show awareness of a number of barriers of access, but systematic and participative approaches for the elimination of those barriers are still outstanding. The results and options for the implementation of possible changes to the system were discussed during a Network meeting.

Conclusion: The concept underpinning the family-vouchers using a ‘low threshold’ approach, make it suitable to bring parents into contact with services related to Early Interventions. Precise target group definition, a structured assessment for the identification of the target groups and the participation of the target group in the further development of the concepts can contribute to the optimization of the utilization, in particular of burdened parents. Along with the results most relevant to improve practice, this study demonstrates that new midwifery research centres can contribute to further development of services related to family health.

Ethical criteria and conflict of interests: This research/project was not approved by an ethics committee, because it is evaluation research and no data was collected from clients or patients. The work was financed by third party funds from the Senate Department for Education, Youth and Science of the State of Berlin. There is no conflict of interest.

The PDF file of the poster submitted for the meeting is available in German as Attachment 1 [Attach. 1].


References

1.
Renner I, Scharmanski S. Gesundheitsfachkräfte in den Frühen Hilfen. Hat sich ihr Einsatz bewaehrt? Bundesgesundheitsblatt. 2016;59:1323. DOI: 10.1007/s00103-016-2430-8 External link
2.
Flick U. Triangulation – eine Einfuehrung. 3rd ed. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften; 2011.
3.
Kooperationsverbund Gesundheitliche Chancengleichheit, Hrsg. Kriterien für Gute Praxis der soziallagenbezogenen Gesundheitsfoerderung. Berlin: Geschaeftsstelle Gesundheit Berlin-Brandenburg e. V.; 2015.