May 30, 2024

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May 30, 2024

AMCHP Member Brief Banner, a bi-weekly AMCHP newsletter.

AMCHP Announcements

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New MCH Bridges Podcast Episode: What the Health is Food Insecurity?!

Our newest MCH Bridges episode is now live! Episode 18 – “What the Health is Food Insecurity?!”

The latest MCH Bridges and What the Health?! crossover episode, led by AMCHP’s Youth Voice Amplified (YVA) committee, talks about the food insecurity crisis in the United States from a systems and lived experience point of view, and how these perspectives impact each other. This episode shares an overview of the state of food insecurity in this country, a background of different terms in the food justice space, and the inequities that present challenges for many in our communities. You will also hear about the importance of empowering communities and understanding solutions to accessing nourishing foods they connect with to create positive health outcomes.

Tune in now to listen and learn from guest host Amber Woodside and speakers Serena Sakkal and Bennett K. who share their experiences and insights on how to restore the connection between food and joy.

Why tune in to MCH Bridges?

MCH Bridges is intended to help our listeners create new connections to MCH leaders, organizations, and ideas. We aim to inspire and guide listeners towards actions that will improve the systems that impact MCH populations.

Who should listen to MCH Bridges?

MCH Bridges is designed for Title V MCH & CYSHCN leaders, state and jurisdictional health department staff, individuals with lived experience and their families, MCH faculty and students, public health professionals, and others wanting to learn more about supporting MCH populations and equitable systems of care. 

New BirthWork Podcast Episode 3: Supporting Teen Parents

Join us on the latest episode of BirthWork as we discuss the topic of supporting teen parents. Our guest speakers, Daylisha Reid, and Mariana Anguiano, bring personal and professional expertise to the table, discussing the vital role of quality care and resources for pregnant and parenting teens.

Daylisha Reid, a Program Director from Texas, shares her journey and highlights the necessity of accurate sex education for both teens and parents. Mariana Anguiano, a former doula with Strong Tomorrows in Tulsa, Oklahoma, draws from her experiences as a teen mother to advocate for holistic support and parental involvement.

Listen to the new episode on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, and Buzzsprout. Tune in to this enlightening conversation and discover how policies, systems, and communities can pave the way for healthier futures for teen parents and their families.

Recent AMCHP Announcements

AMCHP Annual Conference

Thank you to the more than 1,300 maternal and child health (MCH) leaders and thinkers who joined us in Oakland and virtually from April 13-16 for our 2024 AMCHP Annual Conference! Over 1,000 individuals joined us in person and almost 300 virtually, making this event again one of the largest gatherings of MCH professionals in the United States.

Subscribe to our Annual Conference Newsletter to be the first to receive updates and information about our conferences in 2025 and 2026, and share the subscribe link with your peers!

AMCHP 2024 Post-Conference Evaluation Survey

Please take a few moments to complete the conference evaluation survey by June 12! Check your inbox for a direct email containing a post-conference evaluation link from Qualtrics.

This evaluation is extremely important for AMCHP to ensure your feedback is considered when planning the next conference experience. Your valuable input will help our conference planning committee serve you better. If you attended virtually or attended live-streamed sessions, we are particularly interested in hearing from you!

Here’s how we incorporated your feedback from last year’s conference:

Accessibility: We added closed captioning to our plenary sessions for improved accessibility.
Plenary and Breakouts: You mentioned that the opening plenary was long, and we agreed! We created a shorter opening plenary and really tried to keep things moving. You also asked to bring back seating in rounds, a hallmark of AMCHP’s conferences.
Food: We included information on meals and snacks on the conference website, so you would know what was being served and when.
Fun & Creativity: We added art experiences, dancing, and a reception at the Oakland Museum of California to bring joy, laughter, music, and art to the conference.

Did you not receive the survey in your inbox? The survey was sent out to all registered attendees on April 19 from ‘AMCHP 2024 Conference Evaluation’ (noreply@qemailserver.com). Please check your spam or junk folder. If you still don’t see it, please email epieval@amchp.org to request a copy of the evaluation link.

Please fill out the survey to the best of your ability. We appreciate your feedback and look forward to seeing you again at AMCHP 2025 in Washington, DC!

AMCHP Announced Award Winners

On Monday, April 8, 2024, AMCHP announced the winners of its 2024 AMCHP Annual Awards. The awards recognize MCH leaders for their outstanding contributions to the field and were presented at the 2024 AMCHP Annual Conference, held April 13-16, 2024, in person at the Oakland Marriot City Center in Oakland, CA, and virtually through our virtual conference platform.

Read the news release.

Acceptance Remarks from AMCHP 2024 Award Winners

AMCHP presented awards for MCH leaders at the 2024 AMCHP Annual Conference, April 13-16, 2024. We wanted to take this moment to celebrate these awardees and share their acceptance remarks with our community.

Visit our YouTube playlist to revisit all of the acceptance remarks and continue celebrating all the amazing awardees!

AMCHP 2024 Highlight: Policy Leaders’ Reflections on Black Maternal Health Week

AMCHP’s 2024 Annual Conference in Oakland, California, coincided with Black Maternal Health Week. To highlight the amazing work being done in this space, we featured influential Black maternal health policy leaders in videos played during our conference plenary session. The first video features Congresswoman Lauren Underwood (D-IL-14), Co-Chair of the Black Maternal Health Caucus and Sponsor of the Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act, historic legislation to save moms’ lives and address every driver of maternal mortality, morbidity, and disparities in the United States. 

The second video features Okunsola M. Amadou, Founder and CEO of Jamaa Birth Village and the AMCHP 2024 John MacQueen Lecture Award recipient; Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA-12), a Black maternal health champion representing California’s 12th congressional district, which is based in Oakland; and Breana Lipscomb, Senior Adviser of Maternal Health & Rights at the Center for Reproductive Rights. 

Each advocate for Black maternal health was invited to share their reflections on the significance of Black Maternal Health Week and their efforts to drive policy improvements in this critical area. We encourage you to take a few moments to hear their insights on their inspiration for advocating in this field, the policy avenues they envision for enhancing Black maternal health, and how collaborative efforts within the maternal and child health community can facilitate meaningful policy reform.

View these videos on our website, and share them with your network!

Revisit AMCHP 2024 Live-Streamed Content Available on the Conference Platform

Do you wish to revisit your favorite session or engage with the live content you might have missed? The wait is over! Live-streamed session recordings are now available on the conference platform, including all three plenary sessions.

For one year, registered participants of AMCHP 2024 will have access to all the on-demand content, live plenary sessions, workshops, and more! Visit the conference platform, log in with your access key, and continue to be inspired by all the outstanding speakers and participants this year on your own time. You can also visit our blog and podcast page to revisit some significant milestones of AMCHP 2024.

Save the Dates for AMCHP 2025 and AMCHP 2026 in Washington, DC!

AMCHP Events & Webinars

Webinar: Strengthening Early Childhood Systems – The Roles of Title V, ECCS, and MIECHV

The goals of the Title V Maternal and Child Health Block Grant, the Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems (ECCS) Health Integration Prenatal-to-Three program, and the Maternal Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program are closely aligned: all are focused on supporting the health and wellbeing of parents and young children, and on developing a coordinated and equitable system of care, especially for families that have been systematically excluded. In recent years, a growing number of recipients of these awards are working together to better serve families. Examples include bringing together cross-agency partners for projects like coordinated referral systems, and initiatives to increase newborn screenings.

In this webinar, to be held on Thursday, June 6 at 3pm ET, experts from the Early Childhood Systems TA and Coordination Center (ECS TACC), AMCHP, and the MIECHV Technical Assistance Resource Center (TARC) will explore opportunities for building statewide systems, underscoring the value that each partner brings to the table. Participants will hear from two states where partnership efforts are underway.

Audience: MIECHV, Title V, and ECCS awardees. MIECHV awardees are encouraged to share this webinar invite with Title V and ECCS leads within their state/territory (where applicable).

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

Define the goals of Title V, ECCS, and MIECHV programs
Describe examples of common statewide systems
Identify common challenges experienced when developing statewide systems
Describe examples of statewide systems engaging more than one maternal child health program in Louisiana and New Jersey

Registration link

Register for the AMCHP Annual Business Meeting

AMCHP invites our members to join us for our Annual Business Meeting to recognize newly appointed Board members and welcome 2024 officers! It is time to register for this virtual event held on June 13 from 2-3pm ET via Zoom.

Registration link

AMCHP Information & Resources

New AMCHP Issue Brief: Opportunities to Leverage Opioid Settlement Funding for State Maternal and Child Health Priorities

AMCHP’s new issue brief, Opportunities to Leverage Opioid Settlement Funding for State Maternal and Child Health Priorities, provides an overview of the opioid settlements, which are funds paid to states by the opioid industry to compensate for the costs associated with the opioid epidemic. The brief features case studies from four state public health departments that demonstrate how settlement funds can be leveraged to support families impacted by substance use.

Billions of dollars are flowing to states from the settlements. The issue brief provides maternal and child health (MCH) professionals with recommendations to influence state decision-making to ensure that settlement funding benefits MCH priorities. As subject matter experts in this area, state MCH programs can be influential advocates for comprehensive, evidence-based programs, policies, and strategies that support families affected by perinatal substance use disorder.

Explore and download our new issue brief, and share this resource with your peers!

AMCHP, Family Voices, and the Catalyst Center Resources on the Medicaid Redetermination Process

AMCHP, Family Voices, and the Catalyst Center at the Boston University School of Social Work) have developed new fact sheet resources for families and maternal and child health (MCH) professionals on the Medicaid redetermination process.

Tailored to each audience, these fact sheets explain the options for children and adults determined to be ineligible for Medicaid, including the processes for reinstatement, appeal, reapplication, and alternative coverage sources such as CHIP and the Marketplace. Because Medicaid renewal is an annual process for children, these resources are useful for providing state MCH staff and advocates with a baseline knowledge of the redetermination process.

The family resources are also available in multiple languages including Spanish, Mandarin, and Arabic.

AMCHP Mental Health Corner

Join AMCHP in Honoring Mental Health Awareness Month in May

Every year in May, our country recognizes Mental Health Awareness Month, which aims to increase awareness of and destigmatize mental health by providing relevant information and resources. Started by Clifford W. Beers, the founder of Mental Health America, this annual one-week awareness campaign was originally intended to celebrate recovery from mental illness and to educate the general public on mental health conditions. Launched in 1949 as a full month, Mental Health Awareness Month now seeks to increase awareness of the state of mental health in the United States.

Visit our blog post to learn more about AMCHP’s efforts to create a workplace environment supportive of well-being, and explore partner resources to promote Mental Health Awareness Month.

Legislation & Policy

Explore our Maternal & Child Health Bill Tracker for more information about pending federal legislation to improve maternal health. Also, download AMCHP’s 2024 Federal Policy Agenda outlining where we are focusing our advocacy work this year.

Subscribe to AMCHP’s Legislative Alerts and Policy Digest to stay up to date with the latest policy information.

AMCHP Leads Coalitions in Support of Funding for Federal Maternal Health Programs in FY 2025

AMCHP continues to lead partners and collaborate with Congressional champions in support of federal maternal and child health (MCH) programs through the annual federal appropriations process for the upcoming Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25).

Read our full Legislative Alert to explore a series of letters demonstrating the broad, bipartisan support for funding a myriad of federal programs to improve MCH, as well as our FY25 funding ask sheets:

AMCHP Applauds the Biden-Harris Administration’s Release of the Maternal Mental Health Task Force National Strategy to Improve Maternal Mental Health Care

On the heels of Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced the release of a national strategy to address maternal mental health and substance use issues. During the perinatal period, an estimated one in five individuals are impacted by mental health conditions and substance use disorders, which are the leading causes of pregnancy-related deaths in the U.S., accounting for more than 22% of those deaths.

The National Strategy to Improve Maternal Mental Health Care is accompanied by a Report to Congress as a part of broader federal efforts to address women’s overall health, and maternal health in particular, across the nation, consistent with the White House Blueprint for Addressing the Maternal Health Crisis and the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research.

Read the full Legislative Alert.

AMCHP Policy and Partnerships Town Halls

Thank you to those of you who joined us for our last AMCHP Policy and Partnerships Town Hall! You can find the full recordings of past Town Halls on our Government Affairs webpage.

Town Halls occur on the second Thursday of every month from 2-3pm ET. We will not have a town hall for June due to the AMCHP Annual Business Meeting, but we invite you to register for all future Town Halls, including our next meeting on July 11, at this registration link.

Opportunities & Funding

AMCHP Career Center: Connecting Talent with Opportunity

AMCHP lists the top jobs available in our industry. Access the AMCHP Career Center to search and apply for open positions or post your jobs and opportunities! Search for Jobs | Post a Job.

Partner Events & Webinars

Webinar: Using Data from the National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH) to Improve Child Health Equity

On Tuesday, June 4 at 2pm ET, join this workshop that will help participants locate NSCH data and resources from the Data Resource Center for Child and Adolescent Health (DRC) and take them through an interactive tour of those resources using examples of child/family resilience and flourishing with an eye toward understanding and promoting health equity. It will also include demonstrations that will enable participants to search the website for data and resources beneficial for completing real-world tasks, such as needs assessments, presentations to policymakers, exploring health disparities, and activating health equity.

After this workshop participants will be able to:

Locate important resources about the NSCH on the DRC website.
Query the NSCH for important national- and state-level data on NPMs, NOMs, and SMs.
Refine data queries to access state-level data on important subgroups (e.g. child race, ethnicity, income level).
Use the DRC to identify data that can be used in promoting health equity opportunities.
Find other resources for aiding in communicating data and policy-relevant results.

Registration link

Publications & Resources

CDC Special Guidance: Avian Flu Prevention Tips

To protect the health of the public, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that healthcare providers continue to support the consumption of only pasteurized milk and dairy products made from pasteurized milk.

Key Patient Counseling Tips:

Unpasteurized (raw) milk and dairy products made from it (e.g., cheese, yogurt, ice cream) can be contaminated with germs that can cause serious illness, hospitalization, or death.

Though bird flu is causing outbreaks in U.S. dairy cows, pasteurization kills harmful germs in milk so that pasteurized milk is safe to consume.
Always choose pasteurized milk and dairy products to protect your health and the health of your family.
The risk to the general public from H5N1 bird flu is currently low.

Share this printable handout with your network: Raw Milk: Know the Facts

New Applied Epidemiology Competencies (AECs) Toolkit

The Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) released the Applied Epidemiology Competencies (AECs) toolkit, a free, interactive resource designed to help applied epidemiologists put the 2023 AECs into everyday practice.

The toolkit provides resources for health department supervisors and individuals to assess applied epidemiology knowledge, skills, and abilities across the AEC domains or competency areas and use the results to identify areas of professional development; inform performance reviews and training plans; and ultimately aid in career maturation, recruitment, and retention.

Specific components include:

Toolkit worksheets to provide practical how-to steps to incorporate competencies into recruitment and retention efforts in health departments.
Job descriptions (including step-by-step instructions for creating competency-based job descriptions to attract the right candidates for the positions).
Worksheets for career portfolios and training plans, and competency-based interview questions specifically for the four tiers of epidemiologists.
Free course trainings on CSTE Learn.
Online, interactive evaluation tools to determine knowledge gaps, inform performance reviews, and more.

Learn more about the AECs and the toolkit by visiting aecs.cste.org. For more information, contact Sarah Auer at Sauer@cste.org.

CTC-SRH Podcast Series on Combatting Congenital Syphilis

The Clinical Training Center for Sexual and Reproductive Health (CTC-SRH) has released two podcast episodes about syphilis testing in the Combatting Congenital Syphilis Series.

Point-of-Care Testing and Same-Day Treatment

The CTC-SRH Associate Director, Tammy Bennett, discusses point-of-care testing and same-day treatment for syphilis infections and how Title X sites can implement these services in their own clinics in this Clinical Chats podcast episode. Listen to the podcast.

Conventional Testing and Treatment

In this Clinical Chats podcast episode, the CTC-SRH speaks with Dr. Kate Miele from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to review conventional testing and treatment protocols for syphilis. Listen to the podcast.

New Report from the Vanderbilt Cultural Contexts of Health and Wellbeing Initiative Explores Centering Children in Policymaking

Childhood is more than biology. Our bodies may grow in similar ways, but a person’s experience of childhood is defined and shaped by culture. In the United States, policies that are designed to address children’s health and well-being often miss this. 

A report from the Vanderbilt Cultural Contexts of Health and Wellbeing Initiative puts cultural assumptions and biases around childhood into perspective by exploring how childhoods are understood globally. 

Learn how decision-makers in El Salvador, Guatemala, Scotland, and New Zealand are working to center children’s worldviews and experiences in policymaking and community building. Discover how inviting children’s engagement can lead to better policies and better health for all kids in the United States.

Explore the full report, Rethinking Childhoods: The Cultural Contexts Shaping Children’s Health and Wellbeing, or read a one-page summary of their work.