By Mark Muckenfuss

Cal State Monterey Bay continues to make an impact on local healthcare, and recent developments come with the expectation that that impact will only increase in the coming years. Between an expanding nursing program, a robust kinesiology department and ongoing mental health work, CSUMB’s leaders are making a difference. Here is a look at a few examples. 

Maternal mental health

For 10 years, the Parenting Connection of Monterey County has been working to support expectant and young mothers in managing the mental stresses that can be part of that role. In recent months, the program has expanded into South Monterey County. 

CSUMB professor Lisa Stewart is a member of the organization’s board of directors. 

“We’ve been able to hire four staff – two are full-time – and we’re embedded in Soledad, King City and Greenfield,” Stewart said. “We create peer support through our pregnancy and postpartum classes, Warmline and Circles of Care programs and we have groups in each of these communities.”

A workplace win-win

Stewart is also conducting research in a different area of mental health. She is applying decision science – a collection of data-driven techniques used to make decisions – to occupational health. 

She hopes to develop an online decision aid with resources to help working parents raising children with mental health issues navigate how and what to share about their child's mental health information with their employer. 

Those parents, she said, often face additional hurdles when it comes to arranging child care, dealing with school-related issues and having the time to access behavioral healthcare. The decision aid would help parents decide the risks and benefits of telling a supervisor what is going on with their child in order to access flex time and social support.

“As a parent with two children with behavioral health issues, I spend a lot more time managing my children's care,” Stewart said, noting she has the advantage of a somewhat flexible schedule. “For 8-5 workers,  it can be very difficult. You’re having to work all day and deal with that and not being able to take time off to go to appointments, school meetings or just be at home to provide support.”

It’s an important issue to address, she said, since 9% of the workforce is affected. 

“This is going to affect your workplace productivity and turnover,” she said. 

The work is being funded through a National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health award that provides $326,000 over three years. Stewart is halfway through that period and has developed the online decision aid prototype based on her 20 years of research on family support for children's mental health. She will be testing it in the coming months.

“I want to know where and under what circumstances does this application help parents?” she said. 

While the resulting plan would be available to anyone, Stewart said it could have a local impact.

“Ultimately, I think we have to look at our local workforce and see if this tool is useful and can help reduce stress for this group of employees,” she said.

Addressing hospice needs

CSUMB nursing director Alyssa Erikson is on the board of Jerry’s Place, a hospice care organization that is part of the Jerry Rubin Foundation. In its first year, Jerry’s Place assisted 12 patients with their final stages of life.

“Jerry’s Place is definitely making a difference in the need for hospice care,” Erikson said. “It’s allowing families to deal with this without the added stress of coordinating care.”

While there are both home-based and nursing home care for hospice patients in the Monterey area, she said, there is still a need for a dedicated hospice facility. Currently, Jerry’s Place operates out of two rooms at About Care, an assisted living facility in Seaside. One CSUMB nursing student has an internship with the program and is learning more about hospice care.

Erikson and others hope to expand the scope of the service.

“There’s a huge dream of having our own house,” she said. “But also a longer-term vision of having a series of facilities.”

Training more nurses 

Of the more than 500 nurses who have graduated from CSUMB’s Bachelor of Science in Nursing program in the past 10 years, 80% have remained to work in the tri-county region. 

“Our students really learn about the community and make an impact on that community,” Erickson said. With many of the students coming from the local area, “It really is like a grow-your-own program,” she added.

Innovations in the program have allowed students working on their associate degree in nursing at regional community colleges to also take courses with CSUMB. In doing so, once they’ve completed their registered nurse training, they can finish their bachelor’s degree in a single year instead of two.

It won’t increase the size of the nursing classes at CSUMB, but students can move through faster, which increases the output, Erikson said. 

Plans are also in the works to open a school of nursing that would offer undergraduate and graduate nursing programs. Erikson expects the school to open within the next three years, further improving healthcare in the Monterey County region.