An early issue the EleVATE Collaborative grappled with was whether this work should include a research component. The debate was heated because of past and present abuses and injustices based on research in our communities, and a history of researchers coming in, taking what they needed, and never returning what was learned back to the community or doing anything with the learnings that benefited the community, such as policy change. As a collaborative we ultimately made the decision to make research an integral part of this work because we were not looking for a “one and done” experience. The EleVATE Collaborative needed to be able to tell the story of our collaborative process, how we achieved our outcomes, what worked and what didn’t work and strategies we implemented to create more equitable research. We wanted to make sure that we could tell the story so that people coming after us would be able to replicate the model. In addition, we especially wanted to tell the story of how research could impact communities, advance racial equity and be implemented in an equitable way.

We actively worked to implement these strategies into our research process: 1) Implement trauma informed care community based participatory research that applies the principles of choice, trust, collaboration, and empowerment, 2) Actively work with community members through equitable decision making, shared goals and values, and 3) Work together to radically listen and be accountable to our communities and collaborative members.

The pilot took place at Affinia Healthcare, Barnes-Jewish Hospital and St. Mary’s Hospital.

This pilot was a feasibility study to understand EleVATE implementation factors, how to implement EleVATE group prenatal care model and identify if our evaluation effectively captured changes in both qualitative and quantitative data.

Though the pilot was a small group of patients and was not statistically significant the results indicated positive outcomes for maternal and infant health.

Qualitative data: Interviews were conducted with health care team members who participated in facilitating EleVATE. Themes from interviews included:

• Increased comfort in strategies to facilitate discussions on implicit bias
• Improved active listening and skills to integrate behavioral health tools
• Utilized tools to address power dynamics between patient and health care team member to increase equitable and respectful care
• Increased understanding of how racism and discrimination impacts health outcomes
• Advanced self-reflection and understanding the need for racial identity without perpetuating harm
• Adopted policy and practice changes to facilitate trauma-informed care

In addition, interviews were conducted with patients between 4-12 weeks postpartum. Patients participating in EleVATE group prenatal care stated the most widely mentioned increase in knowledge was breastfeeding. The most widely mentioned benefit was alleviating their stress.

For more information on the EleVATE collaborative’s pilot: https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/heq.2023.0160

The research study is taking place at Affinia Healthcare, Barnes-Jewish Hospital and University Health.

EleVATE is currently conducting a randomized control trial. Patients are given a choice to consent to the study and are randomized to traditional prenatal care or group care. Patients are provided with surveys throughout and can choose to participate in a qualitative interview.