Cutting-Edge Practice

Incorporating the Social and Structural Determinants of Health in Colorado’s Title V Program

State/Jurisdiction: Colorado
Setting: Community
Population: Life Course
Topic Area: Equity & Anti-Racism Safe and Connected Communities Workforce Development
NPMs: NA

The federal Title V Maternal and Child Health (MCH) block grant guidance provided states with the opportunity to more intentionally incorporate a focus on the social and structural determinants of health (SSDoH) across MCH populations in the selection of MCH statewide priorities for 2021-2025. The guidance included an option to capture cross-cutting and infrastructure building areas of focus, such as the social determinants of health. To address this, the Colorado MCH Program looked beyond the traditional population-specific strategies to identify upstream approaches to address the root causes that impact health outcomes across all MCH populations. The Colorado MCH Program used a structured, data-informed and inclusive process to incorporate SSDoH into the needs assessment and priority selection, as well as the planning and implementation processes for the 2021-25 Title V grant cycle. This new "Incorporating the Social and Structural Determinants of Health in Colorado’s Title V Program" approach resulted in the selection of four of Colorado’s seven new MCH priorities focused on SSDoH: increasing prosocial connection, creating safe and connected built environments, increasing economic mobility, and reducing racial inequities.


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Implementation Handout
MCH Framework


CONTACT INFORMATION
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment
Isabel Dickson
isabel.dickson@state.co.us
202-604-3440
Practice Website