September 21, 2016
The State of Women’s Health 2016: Let the #Agitation begin!
Our second annual State of Women’s Health symposium was a powerful gathering!
We were thrilled to have hundreds of individuals, organizations, and businesses come to The Union League and engage in dialogue to advance healthcare policy and practice for women and families. The amazing panelists, tremendous turnout, enlightening discussion and fantastic energy in the room exceeded all expectations!
We expanded upon our inaugural, one-session program and structured the symposium into two sections: first – our Keynote speaker, Senator Judy Schwank, and the Breakfast Panel, following the format as #SWH2015. After the breakfast program, the event offered both an optional Workshop Panel for more thorough analysis and a more extensive networking session. Our Workshop Panel session was a resounding success – with Standing Room Only!
We also are proud that #SWH2016 was an ACNM Continuing Education-certified initiative, offering our practitioners and students in Nursing & Midwifery credit towards their professional and educational resumes.
The #SWH2016 program laid bare many shocking data points on the state of women’s healthcare and equity in our state and nation, including the insidious gaps in maternity care, the shortage of basic health services and family support, the reality of our socioeconomic and health disparities, the lack of women leaders representing us, and more. Yet we also worked to shed light on systems, policies, and initiatives that have shown promise for making change, including holistic lifespan-focused healthcare such as the midwifery model of care, collaborative models such as the Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health, advances on enactment of paid sick and family leave, and our newfound catchphrase: agitation precedes legislation! (Thanks Sen. Art Haywood)
This symposium is meant to be the beginning of an ongoing mission and dialogue, not a one-time event.
We want to collectively harness the insight and the expertise of the audience as well as the panelists, to begin to identify next steps and partner together to move the needle forward to improve care for all.
We will use the feedback we received from our Sli.do Live Polling* platform to follow-up on strategies to build our #CollectiveImpact, better serve our communities, put our ideas into action, and ensure that our public policies and our policymakers are committed to making change. Stay tuned for our #SW2016 video – featuring many of our sponsors, attendees, and panelists – and for communications on continued collaborative opportunities throughout the year.
Didn’t attend? You can still join the dialogue!
Click here to receive more specific communications from us on actionable steps from the event – and to be one of the first to receive our forthcoming #SWH2016 Outcomes Report (check out our 2015 Outcomes Report here).
Let’s generate the power of our synergy, and knock down barriers to integrative, accessible, centered, empowering, and lifespan-focused care and services.
