Maternal and child health services - the rhode island department of health's (ridoh) maternal and child health (MCH) program supports and promotes the health of all mothers, children, and families…

Maternal and child health services - the rhode island department of health's (ridoh) maternal and child health (MCH) program supports and promotes the health of all mothers, children, and families to reduce inequities and improve outcomes. The MCH program is responsible for: * aligning and facilitating the coordination of efforts among ridoh health topics and programs as IT relates to maternal and child health. * focusing on key areas including women/maternal health, perinatal/infant health, child health, adolescent health, children with special healthcare needs, and social determinants of health * administering the title v maternal and child health block grant in rhode island. RI's title v program is situated in the division of community health & equity (CHE), associate director's office. In this organizational structure, title v acts as a convener, collaborator, and partner in addressing MCH issues within ridoh and statewide. While the responsibility of title v coordination and reporting falls on MCH staff, the larger title v team includes staff from all ridoh programs that touch MCH populations. This team approach allows title v to be represented at virtually every MCH policy discussion, committee, or advisory group in the state. The rhode island department of health (ridoh) strategic framework serves as the blueprint for the rhode island MCH program. Ridoh three leading priorities are to: 1) address the socioeconomic and environmental determinants of health, 2) eliminate health disparities and promote health equity, and 3) ensure access to quality health services for all rhode islanders, including the state's vulnerable populations. Within that overarching blueprint, RI's MCH program is guided by two primary frameworks: 1) social and environmental determinants of health whereas the MCH program seeks to use a broad, community-wide understanding of the underlying social and economic conditions that perpetuate poor health at the community level to identify and make regulatory and policy changes that address root causes of health disparity; and 2) adopting a lifecourse approach to acknowledge an individual's (or a group's) life experiences to better understand current patterns of health and disease. IT aims to identify the underlying biological and behavioral processes that operate across the lifespan. Currently, the ridoh takes a life course approach when collecting, analyzing, and reporting health indicators. Rhode island performs better than the national average for most of the title v national performance measures. This can be attributed to robust public health planning, integrated systems of care, and efforts focused on the state's most vulnerable populations. Despite these positive trends, health disparities persist by age, race/ethnicity, geography, socioeconomic status, educational attainment, and health insurance coverage. In 2019-20, ridoh completed an extensive MCH needs assessment that incorporated feedback from a wide array of stakeholders, including community organizations, clinical providers, advocates, and families. Information was gathered from more than 1000 individuals via surveys, facilitated discussions, large community meetings, and listening sessions. The resulting data were used to develop the following MCH priorities for 2020- -2025: reduce maternal mortality/morbidity improve prenatal health strengthen caregiver's behavioral health and relationship with child support school readiness support mental and behavioral health provide effective care coordination for cyshcn adopt social determinants of health in MCH planning and practice to improve health equity. Ridoh's MCH program has appreciated the opportunity to develop workplans, evidence-based strategies, strategy measures, and disparity elimination plans for the abovementioned MCH priorities 2020-2025 that are detailed within this application and annual report.