…I think anyone who’s taken Upstream’s training is automatically on board, just because of the enthusiasm and the energy that their trainers bring. We can’t discount that at all. That’s a huge piece of this and that training is completely valuable.” — Shauna Coleman, Director of Project Management, Community Health Association of Spokane
Here at Upstream, we began our work in Delaware in 2014, which at the time had the highest rate of unintended pregnancy in the country. We came together with nearly every provider in the state, who joined in to say “we want to focus on this issue.” After three years working together on program implementation, Delaware saw a 25% decrease in births from unintended pregnancies. Since launching this program, we have partnered with health centers across the U.S. and by 2023, Upstream’s health center partners will have reached (or impacted) over one million women of reproductive age annually.
To introduce more health centers to our program and resources, we hosted a webinar in November highlighting for participants that our training and practice transformation is 1) evidence-based 2) patient-centered and 3) flexible to meet the needs of each of our partners.
For me, one of the real strengths of working with Upstream was their ability to recognize who we were and what our strengths were, and being able to be flexible and customize it for us. Because there are lots of ways to do this work. It’s just that you’ve got to have those foundations—the device, the payment [process], the technical skills. But if you’ve got those pieces in place, there’s lots of ways you can do this.” — Tom Stephens, Chief Medical Officer, Westside Family Healthcare
We brought together an FQHC partner panel to talk about their experiences and shared a sample training, giving participants a sneak peak of our program in a live, real-time setting. After a meaningful Q&A session with our panelists, the webinar transitioned to a preview of our Coaching Skills training with an excerpt about navigating personal values.
Watch the training session preview on YouTube or below:
This is just a snippet of the training that we do with coaches – we hope you find it engaging and insightful. We are always happy to talk about the additional ways our training content supports health center staff in providing equitable, patient-centered contraceptive care.
We’re excited to grow and collaborate with more health centers across the US – hopefully that includes some of you! If working with Upstream helps meet your patient’s needs, we would love to talk to you about what a partnership could look like with your organization. Contact us f you are interested in learning more:
Upstream USA is a nonprofit that partners with health centers to improve access to contraceptive care. Our program is available at no cost and begins with a baseline assessment, identifying opportunities for refinement.
