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Title V Maternal & Child Health Block Grant Program Technical Assistance Resources

The mission of the Maternal and Child Health Block Grant, as authorized under Title V of the Social Security Act, is to improve the health of all mothers, children, including children with special health care needs, and their families. Through the Maternal and Child Health Block Grant, the Federal Government distributes funding to States and jurisdictions, provides oversight by requiring States and jurisdictions to report progress annually on key maternal and child health performance measures and indicators, and offers technical assistance to States to improve performance.  

In accordance with the responsibilities prescribed in Section 509 of the Title V legislation, the Maternal and Child Health Bureau works with the States and jurisdictions to identify the types of technical support and resources that are needed.  Technical assistance activities supported by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau include: expert consultation and training; peer-to-peer (i.e. State to State) consultation; best practices exchange; and technical assistance workshops/conferences that are arranged on an individual, multi-State or Regional basis.  

The Maternal and Child Health Bureau places high priority on providing State Maternal and Child Health programs with quality and timely technical assistance.  The resources featured on this page are products from the Title V technical assistance efforts that have been supported by the Bureau.  These informational resources are shared in the hopes that they will assist all Maternal and Child Health providers in promoting quality services, which ultimately result in improved maternal and child health outcomes.

Program Contact:
Cassie Lauver, ACSW
Director, Division of State and Community Health
Phone: 301-443-2204

Media: 
HRSA Office of Communications
(301) 443-3376; press@hrsa.gov

Improving Oral Health for Mothers and Children: Oral Health Priorities and Surveillance in State MCH Title V Agencies

The Child Health Program, Ceil G. Sheps Center, Research Center at North Carolina at Chapel Hill, did a study on access to dental care by examining State priority Needs. The oral health issues in this report was informed by review of public documents submitted by the States and Jurisdiction.

National Performance Measure #17

The Child Health Services Program, Ceil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill conducted extensive research on National Performance Measure #17, the present of very low birth weight infants delivered at facilities for high-risk deliveries and neonates.  This report explores the trends as well as reasons for fluctuating rates for this NPM.

Promising Practices to Improve Birth Outcomes: What Can We Learn from New York?

Something can be learned about improving birth outcomes, particularly for African-Americans, by analyzing the relatively successful experiences of New York. It appears than New York’s success in improving birth outcomes is largely the result of involving community agencies and coalitions in its regionalized perinatal hospital system. New York’s community based regionalization model goes beyond designating hospitals to provide specialty care to high risk patients to organizing regional perinatal partnerships that unite medical facilities and community service providers in a common purpose.

State Maternal and Child Health Programs to Address the Health and Health Care Needs of Women

State Maternal and Children Health (MCH) Agencies and the Federal Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB) have a long history of addressing the needs of children and mothers. Over the years, the importance of promoting health over the lifespan has been recognized and efforts at both the State and Federal level have been expanded to emphasize the importance of women’s health and family health. The ways in which States are addressing the health and health care needs of women is the subject of this review. Official State MCH agency documents including 2005 Needs Assessments and 2008 Application/2006 Annual Reports from selected States were reviewed. The areas of women’s health that States are addressing as exemplified by their Priority Needs statements are explored and specific State efforts to improve the health of women are highlighted. Finally, State Performance Measures for women’s health are described along with implications for a possible National Performance Measure for women’s health.

A Guide for Advancing Family-Centered and Culturally and Linguistically Competent Care

Provides strategies to integrate and advance care that is family-centered and culturally and linguistically competent; five primary areas of focus that include (1) Research and Dissemination; (2) Training, Education, and Professional Development; (3) Information Exchange and Social Marketing; (4) Innovative Practices; and (5) Accountability and Outcomes.

Meeting State MCH Needs: A Summary of State Priorities and Performance Measures

The Child Health Program of the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, under contract with the Federal Maternal and Child Health Bureau, reviewed changes in State and jurisdictional priority needs and how performance is measured in meeting those needs. Three aspects of the needs assessment and priority setting process required by each MCH grantee were examined:

  • State Needs Assessments for the year 2005 were reviewed to examine priority needs identified by each State and compare them to priority needs identified in the 2000 Needs Assessment,
  • Review of State documents to identify other needs described by States but not included in the State’s required list of seven to ten priority needs, and
  • Review of State Performance Measures to examine how they link to State priority needs and the sources of data that are being used by States in measuring achievement in meeting priority needs.

  • Meeting State MCH Needs: A Summary of State Priorities and Performance Measures

Review of the Title V 5-Year Needs Assessment Process

This study aims to (1) provide a comprehensive assessment of how States implemented their Title V Needs Assessments in 2005 and (2) identify promising approaches among the States and jurisdictions that other Title V agencies can learn from and adapt in their own ongoing Needs Assessment and program planning efforts and for the 2010 Needs Assessment for Title V. Health Systems Research, Inc. (HSR), under a contract with MCHB, used a two-phase approach to conduct this study. In the first phase of the study, researchers examined the 2005 Title V Needs Assessment documents of 58 States and jurisdictions. The text of these documents was reviewed and abstracted to describe the variation in approaches used in the assessment process and identify most common and creative strategies Title V agencies used. The second phase of the study involved a more indepth examination of the process in selected States.

Promising Approaches to the Title V Needs Assessment

The Division of State and Community Health held 4 workshops on the 5 year needs assessment, required for the Title V Block Grant.  The workshops provided States with the opportunity to exchange ideas and develop steps in doing their needs assessment.  The workshop also provided participants with the skills to develop and write state performance measures.  In order to view the full proceedings of these workshops go to:  http://128.248.232.90/archives/mchb/needs2004/ 

The Division of State and Community Health presented a "Skills Building" session at the recent Annual Meeting of the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs (AMCHP).  Four of the items discussed at the workshop are presented below: (1) a Word document prepared by Health Systems Research (HSR) entitled, "Preliminary Findings of Promising Approaches to the Title V Needs Assessment", (2) a PowerPoint presentation of the main findings of the HSR Study, (3) a PowerPoint presentation of the major changes made to the on-line Application for the State MCH Block Grant, and (4) PowerPoint presentation of the Analysis of Teen Suicide Performance Data by Priscilla Guild, Project Director, Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, UNC. 

Missouri Bright Futures Spring Workshop 2006 - Promoting Resiliency In Children, Families and Communities: Connecting Schools, Public Health and Mental Health

School, public health and mental health experts developed this workshop - the second of two - to look at new ways of collaborating on issues that affect the mental health of Missouri's children. The workshop focused on hands-on tools to promote resilient children, strong families and healthy communities.

MCHB: Mental Health - Promoting a New Paradigm

AMCHP 2004 addressed the mental health needs of women, children and families in the United States. Speakers examined a new paradigm for improving mental health through public health practice. Sessions examined mental health across the lifespan, from the emotional development of infants to women's mental health and wellness to youth suicide. Participants also learned about emerging trends and best practices from a broad range of maternal and child health issues.

"Best Practices" for Preventing Adolescent Suicide

The Injury Prevention component of the Child and Adolescent Health Program addresses statewide injury prevention activities, including violence prevention and suicide. The Child and Adolescent Health Program represents New Jersey at the Northeast Injury Prevention Network, a bi-regional effort established to prevent adolescent suicide and injury. The planning team of this Network produced a bi-regional Suicide Data Book in June of 2000, which includes matrix spreadsheets showing injury/suicide data for multiple age groups. The group is in the process of producing a bi-regional Poison Data Book, which will include information and matrix spreadsheets pertaining to unintentional or undetermined intent poisonings and exposures to poison. 

Facilitating Public Comment on the Title V MCH Block Grant

Title V of the Social Security Act, the Maternal and Child Health Services Block Grant (MCH Block Grant), provides states with significant flexibility in use of federal funds. Balanced against this flexibility are mechanisms to promote accountability, including state specific needs assessments, plans, reports and performance measures. States evidence their compliance with these and other Title V requirements through annual submission of a combined application and annual report due July 15. 

Five Years of Experience with CAST-5

Capacity Assessment for State Title V (CAST-5) is a set of assessment and planning tools designed to assist state maternal and child health (MCH) programs in examining their organizational capacity to carry out the 10 MCH Essential Services.1 CAST-5 is an initiative of the Johns Hopkins University Women's and Children's Health Policy Center (WCHPC) and the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs (AMCHP), in partnership with the Health Resources and Services Administration Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB). A Preliminary Edition of CAST-5 was first pilot tested in the summer of 2000 and published in early 2001. A revised Second Edition was released in February 2004. 

Update on CSHCN SLAITS Survey

A recent MCH.COM webcast organized by the Division of State and Community Health (DSCH) focused on an update of the next Children with Special Health Care Needs (CSHCN) survey.  This broadcast focused on an overview of the survey which featured presentations by Marcie Cynamon, Stephen Blumberg, Michael Kogan and Paul Newacheck.  The first CSHCN Survey, conducted five years ago, used a telephone survey methodology known as State and Local Area Integrated Telephone Survey (SLAITS).  Ms. Cynamon and Dr. Blumberg from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), provided an update on the developments and approach to the second CSHCN Survey scheduled to commence in 2005.  The data from this survey provides each State with input to five of the National Performance Measures reported in the States Application/Annual Report.
 
The PowerPoint presentation contains a description of the methodology to collect the data, proposed changes, and an opportunity for States to have State specific measures, if they so choose.  The entire webcast is available for viewing on the MCH webpage.  This includes the presentation of all the presenters along with the Powerpoint program.

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The Grant Life Cycle Time frames and processes involved in identifying potential sources of funding, submitting an application, and administering a funded project.

Grants.gov

State Women's Health Profiles women’s health-related data supplied by States in the 2010 Title V 5-year needs assessments.