The purpose of the West Virginia WISEWOMAN cooperative agreement with the Centeres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is to implement a program that provides cardiovascular screening services an - West Virginia WISEWOMAN aims to improve cardiovascular health in low-income uninsured, and underinsured women aged 35-64 with a focus on reducing disparities among those with hypertension. We will utilize evidence-based strategies proven to reduce heart disease and stroke through screening, early detection, and healthy behavior support services. The program will address health equity and health disparities in a variety of ways including community outreach and education to identify women at risk, providing access to culturally appropriate social support services, ensuring inclusiveness by disseminating information in both the English and Spanish language, assessing social and structural barriers to screening and services and engaging women through motivational interviewing to take an active role in their health. The program will focus particularly on non-Hispanic Black women where hypertension, the leading risk factor for CVD has a 56.7% prevalence rate, greater than any other racial or ethnic group. WV WISEWOMAN will work with providers to identify patients with hypertension and provide CVD risk assessment during baseline, follow-up, and reassessment office visits. The program will ensure that appropriate referrals are made while tracking and monitoring clinical and social support services aimed at reducing hypertension and other CVD risk factors. Additionally, the program will ensure the implementation of team-based care to prevent and reduce CVD through patient navigation and other mechanisms to mitigate social support barriers to improve health outcomes in hypertensive women, Black women in particular. The program will continue to build on its network of community partners and health professionals to enhance participation and engagement through community-clinic linkages and bidirectional referral and follow-up services. We will use motivational interviewing and risk assessments to refer patients to appropriate social and behavioral support services. WV WISEWOMAN will compile and analyze data to use in continuous evaluation of services to inform program activities and provide feedback and support to providers to ensure patients receive the best quality care. The program will also use data to identify health care disparities and address health outcomes using multidisciplinary care teams and partnerships. The ultimate goal of WV WISEWOMAN is to improve blood pressure and reduce disparities in blood pressure among participants by improving behavioral health and affecting lifestyle change in participants through a continuous cycle of clinical health and social needs assessments, risk reduction counseling, health coaching, referrals, social support services, and follow-up.
