Search Results: MCHLine

Annotation: This issue brief provides background information on rural healthcare access and focuses attention on the need for national, state, and community-based organizations to collaborate on developing an action plan to improve access to maternal health care and improve outcomes for rural women and their babies. It addresses the challenges that rural women face before, during, and after pregnancy and highlights promising approaches and opportunities to improve maternal health care in rural communities. Six case studies address several factors contributing to problems accessing maternal health care in rural communities, including workforce shortages and access to care challenges associated with social determinants of health. They illustrate efforts to stabilize rural hospital obstetrical services, regionalization and coordination of care, quality improvement initiatives, training and guideline development, provider recruitment and retention strategies, and expansion of care models

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Keywords: Barriers, Case studies, Health care access, Health equity, Maternal health, Rural health, Rural population, Statistics

Annotation: This program is intended for dentists, dental assistants, dental hygienists, dental specialists, and other oral health professionals interested in learning about culturally and linguistically appropriate services. The program aims to provide professionals with the knowledge, skills, and awareness they need to provide high-quality oral health services to everyone, regardless of their cultural or linguistic background. The program also aims to support the implementation of National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) in Health and Health Care.

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Keywords: Diversity, Health care delivery, Health care disparities, Health equity, Oral health, Oral health equity, Professional education

Annotation: The goal of this oral health roadmap for Wisconsin is to reduce the prevalence of oral disease and disparities in oral health status among state residents. It is intended to be used as a guide for promoting access to high-quality oral health care. The plan discusses four strategic areas: infrastructure, prevention and health promotion, access to oral health care, and workforce.

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Keywords: Access to oral health care, Health promotion, Oral health, Oral health equity, Prevention, State information, Wisconsin, Work force

Annotation: This training program applies core principles of health equity specifically to women's health workers in maternal and child health care settings. The training addresses persistent disparities in maternal health care across the country by examining how bias and racism emerge and present themselves in clinical care provided to women, birthing people, and their children. The program is designed for clinicians and women's health workers to help them understand and address the specific ways that inequities manifest in maternal and child health care delivery. The training focuses on identifying and addressing systemic barriers that contribute to maternal health disparities.

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Keywords: Health care disparities, Health equity, Implicit bias, Maternal health, Professional training

Annotation: This document provides an overview of maternal health landscape in Mississippi and outlines its vision, mission and purpose. It serves as a road map for the development, planning and implementation of prevention strategies for adverse outcomes in maternal health. This plan seeks to direct efforts to improve maternal health outcomes in Mississippi by advocating for equitable access to healthcare, promoting education and awareness about maternal health issues, supporting healthcare providers in underserved areas, and fostering collaboration among stakeholders and community organizations to address maternal health disparities.

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Keywords: Access to care, Collaboration, Health care equity, Maternal health, Plans, State MCH programs, State initiatives

Annotation: This resource outlines best practices for equitable maternal care, addressing the disparities experienced by women of color, particularly given the near 40% increase in maternal mortality since 2020. It identifies both individual-level strategies, such as screening and documenting social needs and practicing empathy, and systemic efforts, including offering implicit bias training, integrating health equity into quality improvement processes, and diversifying the maternal care workforce. The resource features hospitals in action, describing programs like the HoPE Doula Program and the Swedish Doula Services Program, which integrate community-based doulas to provide continuous support, advocacy, and connection to resources for pregnant and postpartum families. Additionally, it details the University of Chicago’s STAMPP-HTN (Systematic Treatment and Management of Postpartum Hypertension) program, a quality improvement bundle utilizing nurse educators and remote blood pressure monitors to improve immediate postpartum care for women with hypertensive disorders, which successfully eliminated follow-up disparities among Black and White women.

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Keywords: Community based services, Doulas, Health care disparities, Health equity, Hypertension, Maternal health, Postpartum care, Quality improvement, Resources for professionals

Annotation: The Birth Equity Action Map is an interactive mapping tool that describes urgent actions needed by specific system actors (i.e., birth equity partners) to improve birth and racial equity, and it highlights where the system funders can use their leverage to accelerate birth equity. The tool is designed to accelerate the work of communities, coalitions, and funders in strategically assessing their efforts, identifying opportunities, and committing to specific actions to strengthen the birth equity and early childhood ecosystem.

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Keywords: Access to health care, Childbirth, Health care disparities, Health care systems, Health equity, Interactive media, Maps, Maternal health, Perinatal care

Annotation: This report focuses on the Future Oral Health Workforce project, which launched in 2024 with the goal of improving oral health equity and access to oral health care in the state. The project synthesized insights from statewide studies, expert consultations, and community convenings to develop recommendations for building a more equitable and effective oral health care system in New York. This report highlights challenges related to oral health care in the state and offers strategies for improving access to care and addressing the state’s persistent workforce shortages.

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Keywords: Access to health care, Initiatives, New York, Oral health, Oral health equity, State information, State programs, Work force

Annotation: This report provides information about federal regulation of fluoride in community drinking water. It offers an overview of why fluoridating drinking water is important and discusses how doing so reduces oral health disparities. It explains federal, state, and local governments' role in fluoride regulation. It also discusses federal actions to combat the Environmental Protection Agency's potential prohibition against fluoridating drinking water and opportunities for state and local governments to respond.

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Keywords: Dental caries, Federal government, Fluoride, Legislation, Local government, Oral health, Oral health equity, Prevention, State government

Annotation: This report provides information on the Community Oral Health Transformation (COrHT) initiative, an effort to improve oral health equity and oral-health-care delivery across North Carolina. the Initiative sought to align community needs with person-centered, integrated care principles through cross-sector collaboration, advocacy, and systems transformation. The report discusses challenges to attaining optimal oral health for many people, provides COrHT background and selection criteria, and includes an impact assessment. A path forward is presented.

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Keywords: Advocacy, Community health, Initiatives, North Carolina, Oral health, Oral health equity, Service delivery systems, State programs

Annotation: This blog post features an interview with Cheri Pies (conducted in 2011) concerning the translation of the life course health development framework into the practice of state and county health departments. It describes the integration of the life course perspective into maternal and child health program delivery, emphasizing a paradigm shift away from traditional medical models toward addressing the social determinants of health. The document outlines specific local initiatives, such as Building Economic Security Today and the Building Blocks Collaborative, which utilize life course principles to improve financial stability and cross-sector health equity. Substantial discussion is provided regarding the barriers to applying this theoretical framework, including categorical funding streams, and the importance of longitudinal research and evaluation to measure intergenerational health outcomes. The interview is one of six in the Life Course History series.

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Keywords: Barriers, Child health, County health agencies, Health equity, History, Life Course, Maternal health, Models, Preventive health services, Research, Social determinants of health, State health agencies

Annotation: This website offers a collection of resources focused on improving the health and well-being of children and youth with special health care needs and their families by enhancing the patient/family-centered medical home. Included are tools for medical home implementation; care coordination materials, health equity resources; Information for families and caregivers; state and national initiatives; and promising program models.

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Keywords: Care coordination, Family centered care, Federal initiatives, Health equity, Medical home, Patient education materials, Professional education, State initiatives

Annotation: This report provides information on oral health trends in Arkansas. It presents graphs and charts illustrating the impact of preventive oral health practices on oral disease risk factors on Arkansas residents. Topics include: dental visits, permanent tooth extractions, edudentalism, and diabetes. Information is presented for children, adolescents, and adults. Background information on oral health, oral diseases and conditions, oral health disparities, and good oral hygiene practices is also included.

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Keywords: Arkansas, Dental caries, Diabetes, Oral health, Oral health equity, Prevention, State materials, Statistical data, Trends

Annotation: This tool was developed to assist states in efforts to improve their capacity to integrate oral health care and primary care for pregnant women. The purpose of the tool is to help state oral health program staff assess systems-level capacity factors and prioritize needs. Staff can use the tool to consider factors that facilitate integration of oral health care and primary care for pregnant women and to look for opportunities to improve integration. A companion brief with more information on the tool’s development is also available. [Funded by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau]

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Keywords: Oral health, Oral health equity, Pregnant women, Primary care, Service integration, State programs

Annotation: This collection of online tools is intended to accelerate the work of communities, coalitions, and funders in strategically assessing their efforts, identifying opportunities, and committing to actions aimed at assuring conditions that lead to optimal births for all people. The tools include: (1) The Birth Equity Action Map, which describes actions needed by specific birth equity partners to improve birth and racial equity; (2) the Birth Equity Ecosystem Map, which visualizes the factors and conditions needed to achieve equitable outcomes; and (3) the Birth Equity Iceberg, which offers insights on the barriers that perpetuate inequitable outcomes and limit efforts to advance birth equity.

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Keywords: Barriers, Childbirth, Health care systems, Health equity, Racism

Annotation: This brief provides information on how having access to a full range of oral health care, including minimally invasive care (MIC), can improve people’s oral health and overall health, their oral health care experience, and their ability to choose the care that is right for them. It discussing the importance for oral health integration for advancing equity, effective strategies for medical-dental integration that promote MIC, and ways that leaders can advance integrated care that employs MIC to support community health.

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Keywords: Access to health care, Health care delivery, Low income groups, Medicaid, Oral health, Oral health equity, Reimbursement, Service integration

Annotation: This brief provides information about MORE Care, a program in Ohio conducted by Health Ohio and CareQuest Institute for Oral Health, in partnership, to improve children’s oral health and reduce costly, invasive dental procedures by advancing value-based care and integrating oral health care into primary care. The brief describes how the program works, offers information about Health Ohio and the CareQuest Institute for Oral Health, and presents an example of how MORE Care is being implemented.

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Keywords: Costs, Health care delivery, Low income groups, Ohio, Oral health, Oral health equity, Prevention, Primary care, Service integration, State programs

Annotation: This handout for health professionals provides tips on how to write oral health materials that are easy for people to understand. It includes ideas about words to use and not to use, tone, voice (active vs. passive), and layout. Effectively using headings and lists is also discussed, along with the best way to write sentences and paragraphs to make the text simple and clear. How to incorporate technical words, when necessary, is explained. [Funded by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau]

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Keywords: Communication, Health literacy, Linguistic competence:, Oral health, Oral health equity

Annotation: This brief highlights state approaches and innovations to support equitable systems of care for children and youth with special health care needs (CYSHCN).

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Keywords: Adolescents with special health care needs, Children with special health care needs, Health equity, Policy development, Public policy, State initiatives

Annotation: This roadmap presents goals and action steps to promote the ability of health professionals working in the areas of primary care, mental health, behavioral health, emergency care, sexual/reproductive health, and dentistry to serve people with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (IDD) equitably and effectively. Topics include the need for a national strategy to improve health care for people with IDD, initiatives to improve training for health professionals, building the roadmap, building consensus, priority action steps, and accrediting bodies for health care facilities.

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Keywords: Chronic illnesses and disabilities, Health equity, Oral health, Oral health equity, Special health care needs, Training