Feds Give Grant to Combat Nashville’s Infant Mortality Rates

The Metro Nashville Health Department has received a federal grant to target high infant mortality rates in two Nashville neighborhoods.

The Health Department will administer the program designed to take a holistic approach to reducing high infant death rates in East and North Nashville. Kimberlee Wyche-Etheridge directs the Health Department’s division for families, youths and infants. She says treating just the health of the mother doesn’t address all the social and economic factors that make death rates higher in these areas.

“As a physician, I can tell somebody the importance of fruits and vegetables and their five-a-day, but if you don’t have access to that, you can’t do it. I can tell you the importance of exercise but if you can’t go out of your house without fear of getting shot then you’re not going to exercise.”

Davidson County had the second highest number of infant deaths in the state at 93 in 2006 and African Americans are disproportionately affected. The grant is for $745,000 per year for the next five years. Memphis is the only other Tennessee city to win this particular federal grant.

The program will be pooling resources and expertise from several Metro Departments as well as Fisk, Tennessee State and Belmont Universities. Educational components and case management will be key. There’s also a program for fathers-to-be, with the goal of strengthening families. Down the road, the program hopes to encourage individuals from these neighborhoods to apply for nursing school at Belmont and TSU.

The grant comes from the federal Health Resources Services Administration and director Mary Wakefield was on hand for Tuesday’s announcement.

“The problems that this project is designed to address are so complex that they really benefit most when there are people, organizations from different vantage points all working together.”

She says more “innovative” approaches like Nashville’s are needed to curb chronic health issues in the United States.

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