Background on Sauk County Health Department

The Sauk County Health Department serves a diverse community of around 65,000 residents. This community is home to the City of Baraboo and the popular tourist destination of the Wisconsin Dells. The Sauk County Health Department is dedicated to improving the wellbeing of this community. Maternal and child health is a critical issue for the department, and they are committed to driving evidence-based solutions to address health disparities.

Identifying the Need for an Evidence-Based Approach

As part of a grant, the Sauk County Health Department needed to implement an evidence-based strategy for capturing a metric related to social determinants of health and their impact on maternal and child health outcomes. They contracted with F&T Labs to guide them through this process.

The goal was to enable the Sauk County Health Department to better tell the data-driven story of the most vulnerable members of their community. By developing an evidence-based logic model, they aimed to quantify the impact of critical social determinants and elevate them as priorities for action.

Developing an Evidence-Based Logic Model

F&T Labs worked closely with the Sauk County Health Department team to guide the development of an evidence-based logic model focused on the relationship between housing instability and maternal and child health (MCH) outcomes.

The process included:

1. Learning Systems Thinking: F&T Labs facilitated a training session to equip the Sauk County Health Department staff with the capabilities to evaluate MCH outcomes within systems-level frameworks. This focused on understanding systems thinking and how to review scientific literature to build logic models showing the impact of social drivers of health.
2. Conducting a Literature Review: F&T Labs then performed a thorough literature review to analyze the relationship between housing instability and MCH. The team summarized the findings in a table, highlighting how housing instability is defined and the factors that mediate the connection to poor health outcomes.
3. Building the Logic Model: Equipped with the knowledge from the literature review, F&T Labs facilitated a workshop for the Sauk County Health Department staff to develop a systems-level logic model focused on the relationship between housing and MCH. This allowed the team to map out the evidence-backed factors for how housing instability and other social determinants impact the health of mothers and children in their community.

Implementing the Evidence-Based Metric

Based on the literature and the logic model, the Sauk County Health Department defined housing instability as having moved two or more times within the past year. During intake, their Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP), Prenatal Care Coordination (PNCC), and Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) programs will ask clients this question and track the number of clients experiencing housing instability in their performance management dashboard.

Impact

Through this project, the Sauk County Health Department has taken a critical step towards addressing the social determinants of maternal and child health in their community. By developing an evidence-based logic model focused on housing instability, they now have a powerful tool to quantify the impact of this pressing issue and elevate it as a priority for action.

As the department implements this new metric and uses the data to inform programs and policies, they will be able to tell a more comprehensive, data-driven story about the role of structural inequities in shaping maternal and child health outcomes. This effort aligns directly with the Sauk County Health Department’s commitment to advancing health equity, empowering them to make meaningful strides towards a community where every mother and baby are supported by equitable, data-informed care.

The insights gained through this project will undoubtedly serve as a springboard for the Sauk County Health Department to tackle other critical social determinants and continue transforming the health and well-being of all residents. By documenting their process and sharing their learnings, the department has the potential to inspire and guide other public health agencies across the state and nation as they work to address the root causes of health disparities in their own communities.

The Flourish & Thrive Labs Difference

This project with the Sauk County Health Department showcases Flourish & Thrive Labs’ expertise in several key areas:

• Developing evidence-based logic models to address social determinants of health: F&T Labs’ work with a community in North Chicago, Illinois, demonstrates their ability to create data-driven frameworks that capture the impact of structural factors on public health outcomes.
• Focusing on building capacity and empowering organizations to continue their transformation journey independently: The THRIVE methodology, a core part of F&T Labs’ approach, ensures that clients like the Sauk County Health Department are equipped with the tools and knowledge to sustain progress long after the engagement.
• Adopting a people-first approach and commitment to understanding the unique needs and priorities of the community: This guiding philosophy shaped the development of the housing instability metric, ensuring it was tailored to the specific context and concerns of Sauk County.

By leveraging these distinctive capabilities, Flourish & Thrive Labs was able to partner with the Sauk County Health Department to create an impactful, evidence-based solution that will drive meaningful change in their community.