Currently in Miami-Dade County black infants are more than twice as likely as white infants to die before their first birthday. According to Florida Vital Statistics Miami-Dade (2014), “black infants die at …show more content…
Once a women decides she will breastfeed the Breastfeeding program will offer materials from a certified lactation educator which will provide certain breastfeeding techniques, receive follow up through a peer counselor, receive enhanced food package, breast pump, breast shells and nursing supplements to help support the continuation of breastfeeding.
5. What are the major challenges in your work in public health? Maria states “WIC faces a lot of challenges that hinder services that are delivered to the women in the Miami-Dade area such as lack of funding, lack of employees, and misunderstanding commination among participants in the WIC program”. These issues has caused barriers for WIC agencies which unfortunately affects our participants who need care.
Maria states “WIC agencies play a huge role in helping women and their families, they help prevent nutrition related health problems and help women eat healthier and provide child services for families in needs”. The lack of funding have made our agencies unable to reach other women in need of different prenatal help, like women that are overweight women that have diabetes and young women that are afraid to receive help during their …show more content…
In the shelter she met a lovely women name Julie who coordinated the shelter. Maria said “Julie took the time to get to know her and provided her with information about WIC”. That day she went to the center, filled out an application, from their talk to a counselor. Within months she had insurance for herself and her son, child care with early head start, received help for affordable housing. WIC gave her the opportunity to go back to school and receive a college degree.
7. What is needed to strengthen the public health system in our community? Be specific. Maria states “she believes the Affordable Care Act is a step in strengthening public health in the United States and cities like Miami- Dade experiencing poverty, affordable and lack of educational services, financial burden, lack of housing and lack of access to affordable health insurance”. The Affordable Care Act will provide health insurance to families, and individuals that cannot afford health insurance by expanding Medicaid, and providing preventable