Webinar Series: Systems for Safe Sleep: Purposefully Building Programs for Effective Public Health Partnerships

The Safe States Alliance and Southeastern and Southwestern Injury Prevention Network is hosting a webinar series entitled Systems for Safe Sleep: Purposefully Building Programs for Effective Public Health Partnerships.

Webinar 1: Systematically assessing safe infant sleep interventions using the Multi-Sectoral Influences Matrix (M-SIM)

Recording: http://media.safestates.org/Systematically_Assessing_Safe_Infant_Sleep_M-SIM.mp4

In this presentation, participants will learn about the Multi-Sectoral Influences Matrix (M-SIM), a tool developed by Carolyn Cumpsty-Fowler of the Johns Hopkins Hospital and University. The M-SIM is used for assessing feasibility, relevance, challenges and opportunities, as well as for generating stakeholder-informed question strategies that can facilitate effective and thoughtful public health program design. Dr. Fowler will provide an overview of the M-SIM, then Merissa Yellman will discuss a community safe sleep program analysis using the M-SIM, and Jane Herwehe will share how the tool is being used in the Louisiana Office of Public Health Bureau of Family Health’s safe sleep work.

Webinar 2: A Public Health Approach to Safe Sleep: Implementing and Evaluating a Multi-Level Program - March 20, 3:00-4:30 EST

In the second webinar in the series, participants will learn about Tennessee’s approach to safe sleep and get ideas for applying their approach in your own community. Tennessee has had a great deal of success with their safe infant sleep programming. They have worked with hospitals, parents, providers, and the business community to implement a multi-faceted prevention campaign that has shown positive results. Importantly, these results are known because each arm of the program has included an evaluation that captures what and how the work was done, as well as its impact. Webinar 2 will be helpful for practitioners seeking a successful approach to implementing safe sleep programs.

Webinar 3: Walking the Line Between Public Health Messages and Lived Experience: Constructive Conversations and Unlikely Alliances - April 17, 3:00-4:30 EST

As a part of a broader conversation about public health messaging, the third webinar in the series will discuss how safe sleep communication campaigns can cause conflict between public health and other professionals involved in infant and family health (i.e. breastfeeding advocates). In this webinar, Terri Miller from the Georgia Department of Health will share her story about the positive working relationship that developed between public health and maternal and child health in relation to Georgia’s Safe to Sleep Campaign. Linda Smith, co-author of Sweet Sleep: Nighttime and Naptime Strategies for the Breastfeeding Family, will share her perspectives on the balance between women and baby’s need for sleep, nourishment, safety, and closeness. Jane Herwehe of the Louisiana Department of Health will provide final commentary on the webinar series, connecting each presentation back to the Multi-Sectoral Influences Matrix (M-SIM). Webinar 3 may be of particular interest to those interested in the tension between lived experience and public health data and research, as is it is exploring the sometimes contentious relationships between public health and breastfeeding advocates.