The Collaborative Management Team (CMT) includes the Maternal and Child Health (MCH) programs of Gadsden County including: 1) The Federal Healthy Start/Gadsden Woman to Woman (GWTW)) Project, administered by the Center for Health Equity, Inc., 2) Healthy Families Gadsden/Leon administered by the Brehon Institute, 3) The FSU Early Head Start program, 4) The state’s Healthy Start program and Nurse Family Partnership Program administered by the Gadsden County Healthy Start Coalition, 5) Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) administered by the Gadsden County School District, 6) WIC administered by the Gadsden County Health Department, and 7) Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) under Jessie Furlow Medical Center.
The primary reason for this original collaboration was to begin building a seamless system of care for women and children and to eliminate duplication of limited services so often found in rural communities. When the CMT was first implemented, spearheaded by the Center, the focus was on creating a comprehensive referral system among MCH programs. This was eventually articulated in a formal Memorandum of Agreement, developed by the Center, among the MCH agencies, which follows the Life Course model with prenatal care, infant care, and pre-interconceptional care for women. These linkages are strengthened by regularly scheduled meetings of all program directors to review the system of care as well as regularly scheduled meetings of program managers/supervisors to staff women and families appropriately so that consumers receive risk appropriate services based on screening and assessment.
