The Wright Center for Community Health’s Healthy MOMS Program Benefitted by Local American Legion Fundraiser The Wright Center for Community Health’s Healthy Maternal Opiate Medical Support (Healthy MOMS) program received dozens of baby items and a monetary donation, thanks to a bingo fundraiser organized by the Michael Steiner American Legion Jessup Post 411 Ladies Auxiliary. Co-founded by The Wright Center five years ago, Healthy MOMS assists pregnant women and new mothers with substance use disorders and aims to lower the incidence of babies born with neonatal abstinence syndrome. Since October 2018, the program has helped more than 467 moms and 274 babies across nine counties in Northeast Pennsylvania: Lackawanna, Luzerne, Susquehanna, Wayne, Pike, Monroe, Carbon, Wyoming, and Schuylkill. Accepting the donations, from left, are Healthy MOMS Case Manager Michele Coyle and Maria Kolcharno, MSW, LSW, director of addiction services at The Wright Center for Community Health and a key leader of the Healthy MOMS program. Donations included more than 30 packs of diapers, 50 packs of wipes, 30 packages of baby formula, four homemade blankets, and plenty of other baby supplies. For more information about the Healthy MOMS program, visit www.healthymoms.org/.
Scranton Area Community Foundation Grant supports The Wright Center The Wright Center for Community Health was recently awarded a $3,000 grant by the Scranton Area Community Foundation in support of the collaborative Healthy Maternal Opiate Medical Support program (Healthy MOMS) that focuses on helping pregnant women and new mothers overcome addiction and embrace a life in recovery. Through the CHILDCARE Helps MOMS work program, the grant will support working mothers in the Healthy MOMS program who need assistance paying for emergency child care costs. The program provides financial assistance so mothers can return to work, closing the gap until the mother receives subsidized child care assistance. The grant will be able to fund 67 weeks of child care. The project fulfills an unmet need by providing financial assistance for mothers in the Healthy MOMS program who are seeking to return and remain in the workforce. In addition, Healthy MOMS participants are offered blanket services that include medication-assisted treatment and addiction services, counseling, primary health care, OB-GYN care, parenting tips, legal advice and a range of other supports. The program promotes the well-being of both mom and newborn, ideally engaging them in wrap-around services until the child turns 2 years old. Launched in 2018, the program serves Lackawanna, Luzerne, Monroe, Pike, Schuylkill, Susquehanna, Wayne and Wyoming counties. To date, Healthy MOMS has supported more than 300 mothers and 189 babies. “We are grateful for the Scranton Area Community Foundation’s financial support and the community partnerships that enable this program to touch two generations in our regional communities,” said Maria Kolcharno, the director of addiction services and a leader of the Healthy MOMS program at The Wright Center. “The lack of affordable child care continues to be a challenge for women enrolled in Healthy MOMS.” In addition to primary care, oral health and women’s health services, The Healthy MOMS program realizes that mothers with substance use disorder would be identified via Social Services, such as the local Child Welfare Office, via the legal system, and by additional MAT providers in the area. Mothers who enter the Healthy MOMS program always have a choice as to who their medical providers will be. For more information about the Healthy MOMS program, call 570-955-7821 or visit HealthyMOMS.org.
Healthy MOMS Case Manager Presents at U.S. Breastfeeding Committee Conference Marcella Garvin, a case manager of the Healthy Maternal Opiate Medical Support program (MOMS) at The Wright Center for Community Health, recently made the presentation, “It Takes a Village: Utilizing a Collaborative Approach to Promote Breastfeeding Among Women with Substance Use Disorder,” at the U.S. Breastfeeding Committee Conference in June. Garvin’s presentation focused on how the novel program educates mothers in recovery early in their pregnancies about the importance of breastfeeding their newborns. “Breastfeeding is strongly recommended for any new baby. However, women with substance use disorder have lower rates of breastfeeding. When a mother in recovery is utilizing medication as part of their treatment, babies can sometimes experience withdrawal symptoms,” said Garvin. The Healthy MOMS program aims to reduce or eliminate withdrawal symptoms through intensive case management. Part of the collaborative approach includes providing mothers with education about the importance of breastfeeding early in their pregnancy. “We have seen excellent results, improving our breastfeeding rate nearly 40% from the inception of the program. We have also seen that educating and providing mothers with support early in their pregnancy has resulted in better outcomes for their babies,” said Garvin. Data from the program shows a lower incidence of neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) in mothers who join the program more than 30 days prior to delivery and lower incidences or severity in mothers who are breastfeeding. NAS is a withdrawal syndrome that can occur in newborns exposed to certain substances, including opioids, during pregnancy. Garvin joined The Wright Center for Community Health as a case manager for the Healthy MOMs Program in 2020. In her role, she works closely with mothers working to overcome substance use disorder through recovery. Launched in 2018, the Healthy MOMS program has 140 mothers active in the program and has had 177 children born into the program, as of June 2022. The program takes a collaborative, holistic approach to treating mothers with substance use disorder. It aims to help pregnant women and new mothers overcome addiction and embrace a life in recovery. Participants are offered blanket services that include medication-assisted treatment and addiction services, counseling, primary health care, OB/GYN care, parenting tips, legal advice and a range of other support. The program promotes the well-being of both mom and newborn, ideally engaging them in wrap-around services until the child turns two years old. The Healthy MOMS program has served mothers as young as 14, but most are in their late 20s and 30s. Named after a program of the same name in Ohio, it was introduced in this region as a pilot program in two counties, with initial grant funding secured by the Lackawanna/ Susquehanna Office of Drug and Alcohol Programs. Today, it assists women in Lackawanna, Luzerne, Monroe, Pike, Schuylkill, Susquehanna, Wayne and Wyoming counties. The nonprofit Maternal and Family Health Services Inc. and multiple area hospitals are among the many health care, social service and government agencies that power the program’s ongoing success. For more information about the Healthy MOMS program, call 570-955-7821 or visit HealthyMOMS.org.
The Wright Center Receives Grant to Support Healthy Moms Program The Wright Center for Community Health was recently awarded nearly $600,000 in federal grant funding to combat the ongoing opioid crisis by supplying addiction treatment and related services to pregnant women and new mothers who cope with substance use disorder. The grant will support women living in recovery in Northeast Pennsylvania who are active in the region’s Healthy Maternal Opiate Medical Support program (Healthy MOMS), which The Wright Center for Community Health co-founded with its community partners nearly three years ago. More than 115 mothers and their children are currently helped by the collaborative Healthy MOMS program, which relies on dozens of health care organizations, government agencies and nonprofit groups to extend services across a multicounty territory. The Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs will administer the grant funding that was made available to states by the federal government, specifically through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). It is intended “to improve outcomes for individuals in recovery from substance use disorder,” according to Gov. Tom Wolf’s office. The Wright Center is one of 12 organizations in Pennsylvania to receive funding during the grant distribution process to expand access to pregnancy support services. Those services include postpartum health care, mental health care, nutrition education, employment readiness, childcare, life skills training and linkages to appropriate treatment programs, including medication-assisted treatment. One aim of the grant-funded project will be to extend supportive services to more women in southern Luzerne and Schuylkill counties. “We’re extremely grateful to be the recipient of funding that will enable us to help additional mothers and their families across our region,” said Maria Kolcharno, director of Addiction Services at The Wright Center for Community Health. “These moms essentially face a triple challenge today: caring for babies, maintaining sobriety and emotionally pushing through the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s a lot to ask of anyone, especially women who because of their past substance use might be alienated from a support network of family and friends.” Among public health officials, pregnant women who use substances are deemed a priority population to receive recovery services, because both they and their unborn babies are especially vulnerable. The COVID-19 pandemic seemingly has made the situation even more fragile for certain people living in recovery and triggered a spike in substance misuse, as reflected in increased rates of relapse and drug overdose. Pennsylvania, for example, experienced a 14-percent increase in drug overdose deaths in 2020 compared to the prior year, according to preliminary data released this summer by the state Department of Health. The latest grants are part of $55 million in federal funding awarded to Pennsylvania through the SAMHSA Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant Program COVID-19 Supplemental Awards. Announced in early October, the $598,644 award made to The Wright Center will allow the Healthy MOMS program to further serve women and their children in Lackawanna, Luzerne, Monroe, Pike, Schuylkill, Susquehanna, Wayne and Wyoming counties. A collaborative venture from the start, the Healthy MOMS program would not be an effective project without the substantial and sustained contributions of its dozens of community partners. Information about the project and its partners is available at this website: healthymoms.org. Learn more about the Healthy MOMS program by calling 570-995-7821 or texting healthymoms to 555888.
