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Division of State and
Community Health (DSCH)
The work of all Maternal
and Child Health Bureau divisions, programs, and staff is in support of
the Bureau’s Strategic
Plan (2003-2007) for meeting the needs of the maternal and
child health populations of the United States and its Jurisdictions. The
Bureau focuses—through leadership, performance, and accountability—on
accomplishment of five over-arching goals: 1) Provide National Leadership
for Maternal and Child Health; 2) Promote an Environment that Supports
Maternal and Child Health; 3) Eliminate Health Barriers and Disparities;
4) Improve the Health Infrastructure and Systems of Care, and 5) Assure
Quality of Care. The Bureau’s progress—or accountability—toward
goal achievement is reported annually.
The Division of State
and Community Health (DSCH) is one of five divisions of the HRSA’s
MCHB. DSCH provides national leadership, direction, and administrative
oversight for the Title V MCH Services Block Grant Program, the State
Systems Developments Initiative (SSDI) and the Association of Maternal
and Child Health Programs’ Cooperative Agreement. The Division is
the Federal Government’s primary liaison with each of the 59 States’
and jurisdictions’ MCH programs.
MCH Services
Block Grant Program (Title V)
Enacted in 1935 as a part of the Social Security Act, the Title V MCH
Services Block Grant program is the Nation’s oldest Federal-State
partnership. For over 70 years, the MCH Block Grant has provided a foundation
for ensuring the health of the Nation’s mothers and children. Today,
State MCH agencies, which are usually located within a State health department,
apply for and receive a formula grant each year.
Every $4 of Federal
Title V money received must be matched by at least $3 of State and/or
local money. This “match” results in there being more than
$5 billion annually available for MCH programs at the State and local
level. At least 30 percent of Title V Federal funds is earmarked for preventive
and primary care services for children, and at least 30 percent is earmarked
for services for children with special health care needs.
Title V MCH Block
Grant requirements include:
- Reducing infant
mortality and incidence of handicapping conditions among children;
- Increasing the
number of children appropriately immunized against disease;
- Increasing the
number of children in low-income households who receive health assessments
and follow-up diagnostic and treatment services;
- Providing and
ensuring access to comprehensive perinatal care for women; preventive
and child care services; comprehensive care, including long-term care
services for children with special health care needs; and rehabilitation
services for blind and disabled children under 16 years of age who are
eligible for Supplemental Security Income (SSI); and
- Facilitating the
development of comprehensive, family-centered, community-based, culturally
competent, coordinated systems of care for children with special health
care needs and their families.
Division responsibilities
for liaison with the 59 States and Jurisdictions in this program include:
- Preparation of
grant application guidance documents for the States;
- Clarification
of application and reporting requirements;
- Review, negotiation,
and approval of grant applications from States;
- Support of technical
assistance and consultation related to Title V; and
- Management and
supervision of a national, web-based information and data system (Title
V Information System (TVIS)) for the Title V MCH Services Block Grant
program, which is accessible on the World Wide Web at: https://perfdata.hrsa.gov/mchb/mchreports.
Title V Information System
Every year, each State provides an application and annual report to
the Division on the status of its maternal and child health. The Division
compiles the data and makes them available to everyone via the new TVIS’s
online searchable database at https://perfdata.hrsa.gov/mchb/mchreports.
State-by-State, as well as regional and national composite data, can
be searched, viewed, and printed. Data include annual expenditures,
numbers served, national performance and outcome measures, State-defined
performance measures, Health Status Indicators, Health Systems Capacity
Indicators and the frequency of public access of State MCH toll-free
phone lines. Data also include statistics on infant mortality, prenatal
care, childhood immunizations, and other measures of how well the Nation
is caring for the health of its mothers and children. (The TVIS’s
database can also be reached through the official MCHB site: www.mchb.hrsa.gov.)
State Systems
Development Initiative
SSDI, launched in 1993, complements the Title V MCH Block Grant Program.
The purpose of the SSDI projects is to assure that the Title V agencies
have access to policy and program relevant information and data.
SSDI assists State Agency MCH and Children with Special Health Care Needs
(CSHCN) programs in the building of State and community infrastructure.
SSDI projects aid the Title V agencies with their ongoing MCH Needs Assessments,
determining performance and outcome measures, and the setting of State
priorities. The efforts of the SSDI projects results in comprehensive,
community-based systems of care for the population groups that include
preventive and primary care services for pregnant women, mothers, and
infants; preventive and primary care services for children, and services
for CSHCN.
Title V Programs
Work to:
- Reduce the number
of infants who die before their first birthday to no more than 4.5 in
one thousand births.
- Prevent mental
retardation, neurological problems and other serious effects caused
by metabolic disorders, such as PKU (phenylketonuria), through screenings
at birth and early intervention and treatment.
- Assure that high-risk
pregnant women and their infants are delivered at hospitals that can
provide them with the appropriate level of care.
- Immunize infants
and children against serious preventable illnesses including Measles,
Mumps, Rubella, Polio, Diptheria, Tetanus, Pertussis, Haemophilus Influenza,
and Hepatitis B.
- Reduce the number
of children and adolescents who die or sustain serious injuries from
motor vehicle crashes.
- Assure that every
infant, child, adolescent, and child with special health care needs
has a “medical/health home.”
- Increase the number
of children who receive dental services.
For more information,
contact the DSCH at 301-443-2204.
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