Expanding reproductive healthcare access for adolescents in primary care settings at a community health center: A CBPR project
Abortion, Contraception
Awarded 2016
Community-Based Participatory Research Grants
Reni Soon, MD, MPH
University of Hawaii
$150,000

This Community-Based Participatory Research Grantsproject aims to expand access to reproductive health services, particularly for adolescents and young adults, in an underserved, primarily Native Hawaiian, rural community in Hawai‘i. Partners include the University of Hawai‘i Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Women’s Health, the Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center, and Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest and Hawaiian Islands. Building upon their previous successful collaborations and a recently conducted needs assessment of reproductive health services in the Waianae Coast community, the project team will train and integrate reproductive health case managers (RHCMs) at a federally qualified community health center and conduct parent education workshops in the community. Three RHCMs will be trained using a culturally relevant curriculum in reproductive life planning, preconception health, contraception, and screening and treatment for sexually transmitted infections; training will culminate in an assessment of skills and knowledge. Working as part of the healthcare team, RHCMs will provide health education to patients seen in primary care settings such as pediatrics, family medicine, and walk-in clinics and facilitate access to same-day reproductive health care services. Simultaneously, in response to community-expressed need, six workshops on communicating with adolescents about reproductive health will be organized for interested parents and others in the Waianae Coast community. The RHCMs will be trained during the first 3 months, followed by 18 months of pilot implementation. The project will be evaluated quantitatively using family planning client visit records compared to a historical cohort, and qualitatively with periodic stakeholder interviews.