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Continuing education opportunities for KY’s social and health workers

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Medicaid renewals and steps the state is taking to improve maternal health are all topics experts will cover at the upcoming Kentucky Voices for Health annual meeting in Lexington on December 10th. Kentucky News Connection's Nadia Ramlagan reports.

Sessions count toward continuing-education requirements for the Commonwealth's Certified Community Health Workers and social workers.

Emily Beauregard, executive director of Kentucky Voices for Health said The University of Kentucky's pharmacy team will be onsite - with a pop-up vaccine clinic for attendees and the general public.

"Everyone is welcome to come," said Beauregard. "It's going to be really convenient to have it right there. People can swing by for their seasonal boosters."

Attendees will also get the latest on initiatives to improve access to health care for students, incarcerated residents, and individuals living with serious mental illness or substance use disorder. More information is on the Kentucky Voices for Health website.

The state has made major strides in addressing maternal health disparities among Black and brown Kentuckians.

Experts will break down the latest efforts to continue improving the health of moms and babies - including a special-coverage enrollment period for pregnancy, lactation supplies and consultation, a new helpline to support providers who are caring for new parents struggling with perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, and a newly commissioned study to look at the impact of doula care.

Beauregard said the upcoming legislative session offers opportunities to improve the health and lives of families.

"Policies that we expect to see, in terms of legislation in the coming session," said Beauregard, "will be paid parental leave for parents of new babies and improving access to non-emergency medical transportation for Medicaid beneficiaries."

A 2023 state report found pregnancy-related deaths in the Commonwealth went down in 2018 and 2019, but in 2020 increased to 21.2 deaths per 100,000 live births.

It's estimated more than 80% of pregnancy-related deaths are preventable.

Nadia Ramlagan covers the Ohio Valley and Appalachian region for Public News Service (Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia). She previously worked for The Center for Emerging Media and The Marc Steiner Show, a daily public affairs public radio program in Baltimore, MD and reported for WUKY in Lexington, KY. She's produced long-form radio documentaries and is currently in the process of working on a film. Nadia studied at the University of Edinburgh, American University, and Duke University's Center for Documentary Studies. She lives in Louisville, Kentucky.