B0447453

Maternal and Child Health Services - The Department of Health works with others to protect and improve the health of all people in Washington State. Our vision is equity and optimal health for all. Our programs and services help prevent illness and injury, promote healthy places to live and work, provide information to help people make healthy choices, and ensure our state is prepared for emergencies.

The state's Title V Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Program is part of the Office of Family and Community Health Improvement in the Prevention and Community Health Division of the Department of Health (DOH). The Title V Maternal and Child Health Block Grant (MCHBG) provides the state with essential financial and technical support. It helps programs that improve the well-being of parents, infants, children, and youth, including children and youth with special health care needs (CYSHCN), and their families. MCHBG also adds to state and local public health's abilities to provide foundational public health services, which are the capabilities and programs essential to communities everywhere for the health system to work anywhere.

Our Title V work focuses on issues of equity, addressing the needs of underserved populations, and where there is demonstrated need. This has led us to focus our work on increasing health equity by supporting community-driven solutions and tailoring system improvements tied to disparities. We are working to improve birth outcomes for Black or African American and American Indian/Alaska Native people. We are also identifying gaps where the demand for services is more than the supply, such as perinatal and genetic services in rural areas, and we develop agreements with providers to better serve those regions.

All our MCHBG work relates to key state priorities. Washington conducted a needs assessment between fall 2018 and spring 2020 to identify priority needs for maternal and child health services and inform objectives and strategies for MCHBG work over a five-year period. The key priority needs we identified in the assessment and focused our work on are:

- Increase capacity of the local public health workforce to strategically identify, plan for, and address the needs of women and children throughout the state.
- Enhance and maintain health systems to increase timely access to preventive care, early screening, referral, and treatment to improve people's health across the life course.
- Identify and reduce barriers to quality health care.
- Improve the safety, health, and supportiveness of communities.
- Promote mental wellness and resilience through increased access to behavioral health and other support services.
- Optimize the health and well-being of adolescent girls and adult women, using holistic approaches that empower self-advocacy and engagement with health systems.
- Improve infant and perinatal health outcomes and reduce inequities that result in infant morbidity and mortality.
- Optimize the health and well-being of children and youth, using holistic approaches.
- Identify and reduce barriers to needed services and supports for children and youth with special health care needs and their families.
- Identify and respond to emerging priority needs associated with public health emergencies and their effects on the maternal and child populations.

These state priority needs have guided our choices of which of the grant's national performance measures to focus on, which are:

- Well-woman visits
- Breastfeeding
- Developmental screening
- Adolescent well visits
- Medical home
- Adequate insurance

Various state and federal funding sources support our overall MCH program. We use MCHBG funds to pay portions of the salaries of program managers who plan and oversee strategic work to improve public health systems. The MCHBG provides core funding support that we leverage to maximize our investments, both at the state and local level, in maternal, child, and adolescent health services. Whenever possible,

Washington State Department Of Health

NOT APPLICABLE

93.994 - Maternal and Child Health Services Block Grant to the States

HRSA Office of Federal Assistance Management (OFAM) [HHS - HRSA]

Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB) [HHS - HRSA]

Washington United States

State-Wide

HRSA-23-001

Amendment Since initial award the total obligations have increased 394% from $1,880,928 to $9,291,037.