Fostering Resilience in Pregnancy and Early Childhood During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The HUGS/Abrazos Program Design and Implementation

Abstract

Pregnancy and early childhood pose unique sensitivity to stressors such as economic instability, poor mental health, and social inequities all of which have been magnified by the COVID-19 pandemic. In absence of protective buffers, prolonged exposure to excessive, early adversity can lead to poor health outcomes with significant impact lasting beyond the childhood years. Helping Us Grow Stronger (HUGS/Abrazos) is a community-based program, designed and launched at the time of the COVID-19 surge in the Spring of 2020, that combines emergency relief, patient navigation, and direct behavioral health support to foster family resilience and mitigate the negative impacts of COVID-related toxic stress on pregnant women and families with children under age 6. Through a targeted referral process, community health workers provide resource navigation for social needs, and a social worker provides behavioral health support. The use of innovative tools such as a centralized resource repository, community health workers with specialized knowledge in this age range, and a direct referral system seeks to assist in streamlining communication and ensuring delivery of quality care. We aim to serve over 300 families within the 1st year. The HUGS/Abrazos program aims to fill an important void by providing the necessary tools and interventions to support pregnant women and young families impacted by adversity exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Models of social prescribing to address non-medical needs in adults: a scoping review

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Implementation Evaluation of HUGS/Abrazos During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Program to Foster Resiliency in Pregnancy and Early Childhood

“…The strengths and limitations of program design has been discussed in detail in a prior publication ( 27 ). For our evaluation process, the use of the RE-AIM framework is a key strength that allows us to broadly assess implementation and identify areas for adaptation without disrupting intervention delivery and plan for maintenance and dissemination.…”

“…The design and implementation of the HUGS/Abrazos program has been previously described ( 27 ). HUGS/Abrazos aimed to (1) use targeted patient navigation to address unmet health-related social needs; (2) provide short-term, immediate behavioral health support; and (3) create cross-systems linkages among community partners using centralized resource repository and an integrated referral system.…”

“…The Helping Us Grow Stronger (HUGS/Abrazos) program fills a crucial need for protective buffers during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has escalated toxic stressors affecting pregnant women and families with young children. The multimodal strategy utilized by HUGS/Abrazos to support patients from communities hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic has been previously described ( 27 ). Specifically, HUGS/Abrazos supports patients served by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), including MGH community health centers in Chelsea and Revere, two communities most severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in Massachusetts.…”