Mapping a WIC Mother’s Journey

Abstract

While the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) provides numerous benefits to many enrolled families across the United States, including access to nutritious foods, some recent drops in maternal participation in Kentucky resulted from failures to retrieve those benefits. We explored perceived benefits of and encountered barriers to food benefit retrieval. Journey mapping included direct observations of client appointments, clinic lobby areas, and a shopping experience and was augmented with focus groups conducted in two urban and two rural areas. Major touchpoints before WIC appointments, during those appointments at clinics, and after appointments when redeeming food benefits were identified. Across touchpoints, mothers identified childcare, transportation issues, long waits, confusion regarding eligibility, problems scheduling appointments, and stigma as barriers to their ability to retrieve food instruments. Despite these barriers mothers value the benefits of WIC, especially access to healthy foods, infant formula, and nutrition education. This work demonstrates a method by which WIC mothers’ experiences shed light on client service shortfalls and possible opportunities to improve client services.

Using Journey Mapping within Extension: A Tool for Supporting Behavior Change Programs

“…Journey maps are visualizations of a person's experience as s/he works toward a goal, often with added information, such as feelings, at each point (Howard, 2014;LeFebvre, Taylor, & Thomas, 2016). A journey map can be used to systematically track client experiences accessing and using services (Panzera et al, 2017). In addition to physical actions and decisions, journey maps may also be used to identify and illustrate problems, successes, and emotional responses to relevant services, developing a personal narrative of an experience (Panzera et al, 2017).…”

“…A journey map can be used to systematically track client experiences accessing and using services (Panzera et al, 2017). In addition to physical actions and decisions, journey maps may also be used to identify and illustrate problems, successes, and emotional responses to relevant services, developing a personal narrative of an experience (Panzera et al, 2017).…”

“…While journey mapping has been predominately applied in the retail and product-design sectors, more recently the technique has been employed for social and behavior change, primarily in the public-health context (Esposito & Zeledon, 2013). Examples include tracking the journeys of substance abusers in rehabilitation programs (Roarty et al, 2012), observation of shopping experiences for blind or visually-impaired individuals (Brahme, Gabriel & Stenis, 2016), and evaluation of public health programs (Panzera et al, 2017).…”

“…The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) conducted a health program evaluation using journey mapping to understand economically disadvantaged families' access to nutrition and health services (Panzera et al, 2017). Journey mapping was used to investigate the reasons for dropping family enrollment since 2012 in Kentucky (Panzera et al, 2017). The program attempted to reconstruct the experiences of WIC participants and use journey mapping to collect data visualizing perceived emotions, issues, stigmas, and successes of those who stopped participating.…”

“…The program attempted to reconstruct the experiences of WIC participants and use journey mapping to collect data visualizing perceived emotions, issues, stigmas, and successes of those who stopped participating. WIC's data collection methods included direct observation, abbreviated participant observation to mimic participant experiences, and focus groups (Panzera et al, 2017). Data were analyzed to identify failures or opportunities by the program at various steps (touchpoints).…”