KALAMAZOO, Mich.—In keeping with its widely known efforts to help youths both in and out of foster care, Western Michigan University is partnering with Wayne State University to improve the health of Michigan's foster youths.
With the help of a $75,000 grant from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Foundation, an interdisciplinary research team from the two universities will determine whether Michigan's foster youth are receiving adequate preventive, dental and prenatal health care services. The project is being led by Dr. Angelique Day, a graduate of the WMU Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Program and now WSU assistant professor, national foster care expert and director of Wayne State University's Transition to Independence Program for foster youth support.
Day will collaborate with Dr. Amy Curtis, an epidemiologist and WMU professor of physician assistant, Dr. Rajib Paul, WMU associate professor of statistics, Dr. Kathleen Baker, WMU associate professor of geography, and graduate students from both universities to analyze Medicaid and foster youth casework data in order to track county-by-county utilization.
About the study
The study builds upon WSU-funded research conducted last year by Day and Curtis to gauge adherence to a requirement imposed in 2010 when Michigan converted most foster youth health care administration from a fee-for-service model to a managed care system. That requirement is that youth entering the system have a well visit within 30 days. The interdisciplinary expansion of that work will examine data before, during and after that conversion from 2009 through 2012 to determine whether foster youth ages 14-21 are receiving annual well visits, examine the frequency of foster youth dental visits and the nature of dental diagnoses, and assess receipt of prenatal care among pregnant foster youth.
As many as 95 percent of foster care youth have at least one physical health condition and more than 50 percent experience two or more, due in large part to childhood abuse and neglect. Access to health care services is critically important to this population to improve health outcomes, which contribute to improved educational and social outcomes and prevent problems in later life.
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