Collaboration in Wallowa connects health to early learning

 At the time, Liz Powers and Maria Weer were both relative newcomers to Wallowa County.

Liz was a new family practice physician in Enterprise. Maria worked for a non-profit organization called Building Healthy Families. Their children were about the same age. And the two mothers were similar in another way: they had a passion for trying to make things better for the children of Wallowa County. 

Then they got to know each other. 

“As with most things in Wallowa County, collaboration often starts with a friendship,” Maria says. “And so, we met when she needed some books in Spanish for a family and she knew that we ran a reading program and that I had access to books. That was the first meeting. I remember sitting at my kitchen table while our two-year-olds were playing on the floor and we just kind of said – well, what if we could do this and what if we could do that? And how could we build this? And we’ve really just gone from there.”

That was six years ago. Today, the Winding Waters Medical Clinic, where Liz is a family physician, and Building Healthy Families, where Maria is the executive director, have an unusual and unusually effective partnership working to help Wallowa County children and families.

The collaboration, which does extraordinary work to connect early learning and healthy development for Wallowa County’s young children, will be honored with the Children’s Institute’s Alexander Award at this year’s annual Make It Your Business luncheon. The award is given annually to people or groups that are exemplary in making a difference in young children’s lives in Oregon.

“Wallowa County is intentionally connecting health and early learning, starting prenatally, to benefit families,” says Swati Adarkar, Children’s Institute President & CEO. “We’re thrilled to present them with the Alexander Award and hope that other communities across the state are inspired by their example.”

The collaboration that started at that kitchen table now encompasses a range of programs that the Winding Waters Medical Clinic and Building Healthy Families work on together, all intended to create a seamless connection between a child’s early health and development and their early learning.

Those programs include:

• Well Baby Bags: Building Healthy Families assembles the bags, which include developmental information and milestones, an age-appropriate children’s book, and recommendations for early literacy strategies. Health providers at the Winding Waters Medical Clinic give these bags to families at each scheduled well-baby visit.

• Developmental screenings and intervention: The development screenings were integrated into the workflow of the clinic so that medical providers had the time and training to administer the developmental questionnaire. Building Healthy Families staff assemble kits containing materials and instructions for developmentally appropriate and supportive activities for families to do at home; the clinic then hands out these kits to families during medical visits.

• Reach out and Read: The collaboration has implemented this national early literacy model in Wallowa County. Winding Waters Clinic providers are helping to provide new books to children and advice to parents about the importance of reading aloud.

• Parenting education: The clinic and Building Healthy Families work together to help provide parents and caregivers with a range of parenting education opportunities, including home visits through Healthy Families Oregon.
  The results of the work and collaboration are often remarkable. For example, before the collaboration began, Liz says, about 30 percent of the clinic’s young patients were getting developmental screenings. Six months after the partnership began, that figure became 85 percent, she says.

 But the partnership is about much more than the programs. It is a continual mission of connecting healthy development with early learning. That means, for instance, Winding Waters Clinic often introduces a pregnant mother to Building Healthy Families staff before her child is born.

“In primary care, one of the things that we found to be most impactful in improving patient’s health is continuity and trust with the provider,” says Liz. “When we’re able to introduce our patients and families to Building Healthy Families during pregnancy, that gets them engaged in that young child’s life before they’re even born. It means that they’re willing to engage in programs as they grow up and develop.”

Six years later, many of the “what-if” goals Liz and Maria sketched out at that kitchen table have become reality.

“I think one of the most frustrating things about being a doctor is knowing and caring for a family and not being able to make things better for them,” Liz says. “One of the great joys of our partnership with Building Healthy Families is that we’re able to touch people in a way that’s outside of our traditional walls, outside of the standard medicine. And it’s such a reward to watch those families thrive.”