As my previous post describes, my practicum project focused on the retention of WIC participation within the Mesa County WIC program in Colorado. The computer program, Compass, allows the clinic to evaluate various reports of the clinic and the participants. One report showed that over the summer months, over 200 participants who had previous been on the program were opting out. My project was aimed at assessing why these eligible clients are not returning to the program.

While my clinic does annual surveys to get feedback from active clients, it has not surveyed the population that is choosing not to return to the program. My project was divided into four phases: compiling the target population, surveying terminated clients via phone calls, conducting focus groups and, finally, brainstorming and implanting changes with the WIC staff. As my previous post mentions, I was able to use a termination report to find clients who have been terminated between June and August of 2016. After compiling the list of those who met the inclusion requirements, I had a target population of 337 families.

Phase two was the most tedious portion of the project. I attempted to contact each of these families by phone to conduct a verbal survey about their experience with WIC. It was an eleven question survey to evaluate the barriers and challenges these clients face regarding their involvement with the program. Out of 681 calls, there were 314 messages left for clients, 200 attempts that were unreachable (change in number, number not in service, voicemail full or not set up) and 167 contacts with clients. Ten clients hung up on me and 7 people returned my call. Out of the 167 clients contacted, 121 clients provided feedback. One of the questions in the survey was if they were interested in participating in a focus group, with which 88 clients responded positively. This lead me into phase 3, which I conducted focus groups. Out of the 88 people interested, 31 scheduled groups to attend and only 6 attended a group. Participation was low with only 28.8% participation for the phone call surveys and 19% participation with the focus groups. Despite participation being low, the feedback from those involved was very informative and beneficial.

Phase four was the final stage of the project as well as my most enjoyable. After gathering and evaluating the results, I then presented the information to the WIC staff. They were excited hear the feedback and eager to make changes within the clinic. Through brainstorming ideas and discussing possible methods of change, the staff decided on three areas to improve. Many of the clients mentioned the during same day/next day scheduling system to be too difficult for working parents. As a group, the staff concluded to adjust the system to same day/same week approach to accommodate for less flexible schedules. The second change is to work towards remote clinics to help improve accessibility for our clients. The WIC manager has already been in touch with a local pediatrician’s office to discuss the logistics of having a WIC office within the clinic once a month. This will likely start in the next year. Lastly, the clinic also agreed to begin offer text reminders for appointments and recertifications. Since the majority of clients did not have a specific reason for why they had not been returning to WIC (stating they simply forgot), this will be a beneficial way to reach the clients before they are terminated.

Overall, it was a successful project. It helped me better understand the barriers the clients face as well as implement changes to better accommodate for the clients. I determined that phone calls were not the most affective approach to contacting clients. If I were to repeat the project, I would have like to have texting as an options. I would text the clients I could not reach by phone and offer the survey via a website. Furthermore, if time allowed, I would have liked to include terminated clients for the past year to allow for a large target population, which would have provided more feedback.  I was happy to see a rise in client participation for the month of October based on Compass reports. In the end, my favorite part of the project was to see how dedicate the WIC staff is to provided the best service to their clients.