TY - JOUR
T1 - Mapping a WIC Mother’s Journey
T2 - A Preliminary Analysis
AU - Panzera, Anthony D.
AU - Bryant, Carol A.
AU - Hawkins, Fran
AU - Goff, Rhonda
AU - Napier, Ashley
AU - Schneider, Tali
AU - Kirby, Russell S.
AU - Coulter, Martha L.
AU - Sappenfield, William M.
AU - Baldwin, Julie
AU - O’Rourke, Kathleen
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2017.
PY - 2017/6/1
Y1 - 2017/6/1
N2 - While the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) provides numerous benefits to many enrolled families across the United States, including access to nutritious foods, some recent drops in maternal participation in Kentucky resulted from failures to retrieve those benefits. We explored perceived benefits of and encountered barriers to food benefit retrieval. Journey mapping included direct observations of client appointments, clinic lobby areas, and a shopping experience and was augmented with focus groups conducted in two urban and two rural areas. Major touchpoints before WIC appointments, during those appointments at clinics, and after appointments when redeeming food benefits were identified. Across touchpoints, mothers identified childcare, transportation issues, long waits, confusion regarding eligibility, problems scheduling appointments, and stigma as barriers to their ability to retrieve food instruments. Despite these barriers mothers value the benefits of WIC, especially access to healthy foods, infant formula, and nutrition education. This work demonstrates a method by which WIC mothers’ experiences shed light on client service shortfalls and possible opportunities to improve client services.
AB - While the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) provides numerous benefits to many enrolled families across the United States, including access to nutritious foods, some recent drops in maternal participation in Kentucky resulted from failures to retrieve those benefits. We explored perceived benefits of and encountered barriers to food benefit retrieval. Journey mapping included direct observations of client appointments, clinic lobby areas, and a shopping experience and was augmented with focus groups conducted in two urban and two rural areas. Major touchpoints before WIC appointments, during those appointments at clinics, and after appointments when redeeming food benefits were identified. Across touchpoints, mothers identified childcare, transportation issues, long waits, confusion regarding eligibility, problems scheduling appointments, and stigma as barriers to their ability to retrieve food instruments. Despite these barriers mothers value the benefits of WIC, especially access to healthy foods, infant formula, and nutrition education. This work demonstrates a method by which WIC mothers’ experiences shed light on client service shortfalls and possible opportunities to improve client services.
KW - Infants
KW - Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women
KW - and Children
KW - consumer services
KW - focus group
KW - journey mapping
KW - nonparticipants
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85018740476&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85018740476&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/1524500417692526
DO - 10.1177/1524500417692526
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85018740476
SN - 1524-5004
VL - 23
SP - 137
EP - 154
JO - Social Marketing Quarterly
JF - Social Marketing Quarterly
IS - 2
ER -