EPIDEMIOLOGY & EVALUATION

Current Initiatives

Our Equity, Epidemiology and Evaluation team advocates for the effective use of evidence-based strategies, quality data, valid and reliable measures, and effective data translation and communication.

Current Initiatives

AMCHP believes that leaders can be developed by enhancing one’s natural ability with learned skill development through formal and informal learning opportunities, experience, dialogue, role modeling, feedback, mentoring, coaching, and more.  For over 20 years AMCHP has had leadership development programs for Families, MCH, Title V and CYSHCN Directors. 

All members of the state and territorial MCH programs are entrusted with carrying out the mission of Title V. As such, all Title V staff must exhibit leadership skills on a daily basis, from interacting with stakeholders to communicating the importance of Title V. AMCHP’s Leadership Lab program develops the entire Title V workforce. The program allows Title V staff to learn from one another across the workforce (Family Leaders, new Title V and MCH Directors, CYSHCN Directors, Next Generation MCH Leaders, state Title V Epidemiologist and Adolescent Health Leaders), as well as those with similar roles.

P2P MCH Epi-Net aims to build/enhance leadership competencies used in combination with epidemiology, analytic, and other professional skillsets to have positive impacts on: On Self, On Others, and On a wider community.

Benefits

Increased understanding of how effective leadership skills can enhance epidemiology/data specialist career and professional pathways.

  1. A widening of network of MCH epidemiology/data specialists, and other Title V professionals.
  2. Receiving one-on-one mentoring from MCH epidemiology/data professionals.
  3. Enhancement of critical thinking skills on how to combine and utilize leadership skills and knowledge of MCH epidemiology/analytic topics and methods to maximize leadership impact.
  4. Increased understanding of AMCHP and increased knowledge and utilization of available tools and resources.

The Association of Maternal & Child Health Programs held its 2021 Annual Conference virtually on May 24-27, 2021. There were 1337 registered attendees at the 2021 AMCHP Annual Conference, which is an attendance record. The conference evaluation survey was sent to 1274 registered attendees who agreed to be contacted while registering for the conference. By the end of a three-week survey period (June 1-21), AMCHP had received 305 survey responses for a survey response rate of 23.9%. 

The Association of Maternal & Child Health Programs (AMCHP) developed and administered a survey to assess how the COVID-19 public health emergency has impacted the nation’s Title V program’s operations and efforts. Email survey invitations were sent to 115 named Title V Directors of Title V Maternal & Child Health (MCH) and Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs (CYSHCN) Programs. The primary survey period was from April 28 – May 13, 2020. The valid responses received represented 64 Title V MCH programs from 43 states, five territories, and one jurisdiction. There were three primary Title V MCH Program types among the survey respondents: MCH-only, CYSHCN-only, combined MCH-CYSHCN programs.  A slight majority of the respondents indicated that they were from Title V MCH-CYSHCN programs (53.1%, n=34), approximately one-third were from CYSHCN-only programs (29.7%, n=19), and the lesser proportion were from MCH-only programs (15.6%, n=10). One respondent described themselves as a Title V family leader program.

Annually, the Association of Maternal & Child Health Programs (AMCHP) surveys its membership to obtain assessments of AMCHP services/products and collect suggestions on how AMCHP can improve the value of their membership.

  • 2021 Member Assessment: In September 2021, AMCHP administered an Annual Member Assessment survey to 372 members and received 123 survey responses. This document is a summary of assessments of the overall AMCHP membership experience and a detailed focus on two areas identified as top system-level priorities by member respondents: equity and workforce retention.
  • 2020 Member Assessment: In July 2020, AMCHP administered an Annual Member Assessment survey to 314 members and received 142 survey responses. This document is a summary of assessments of the overall AMCHP membership experience and an overview of other topic areas.

With funding provided by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, in 2013, an expert panel of MCH members from seven states—Florida, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nebraska, and North Carolina—compiled a list of 59 Life Course Indicators (LCI). The primary purpose for creation of the LCI was to provide states’ Maternal and Child Health (MCH) programs the abilities to measure and assess factors that can influence health trajectories over the life course. The Life Course Indicators cover a broad swath of topics including oral health, breastfeeding, bullying, unemployment, household food insecurity, mental health among adults, smoking and alcohol use among adolescents, and homelessness.

Currently, the Equity, Epidemiology, and Evaluation team offers technical assistance (TA) support in life course indicator analysis, calculations, and location of data components, among other TA requests.

View the Life Course Indicators Online Tool​

​Phase I: Healthy Beginnings with Title V: Preterm Birth Priming and Planning

AMCHP and birth equity thought leaders developed resources and held conversations to uncover the unique power and flexibility of the Title V MCH Services Block Grant to pull intention and resources related to preterm birth prevention (and improving maternal and infant health outcomes generally) deeper into the roots of racial injustice. Through four webinars and issue briefs, we identified ways to achieve mom-baby dyad wellness by centering health equity and community co-creation in every step of the program planning cycle. This included understanding the root causes of racial disparities in preterm birth across the country and by race and geography, supporting emancipatory community engagement in data inquiry, analysis, and translation, and forming equitable partnerships with community-based organizations as the foundation for efforts that advance health equity in birth outcomes. The final webinar and issue brief concludes by highlighting recommendations of actions that Title V programs can take to partner with Black-women led community-based organizations leading in achieving holistic community wellbeing. During this partnership, AMCHP also convened a national meeting of public health, health care, and community thought leaders and institutional partners with a role in preterm birth prevention. Participants in the meeting created recommendations for embedding anti-racism into Title V policies and structures as an essential process to achieve a collective vision: Every parent and baby has the optimal conditions, support, and agency to arrive at full-term, ready to thrive every time.

The COVID-19 pandemic highlights the urgency to adopt racial equity-centered approaches. The disproportionate and unjust impact of COVID-19 on communities of color is a direct result of decades of public health and governmental policies that concentrate advantage in White communities. Governmental public health institutions operate predominantly from a White racial frame, and as a result, most programming and resource allocation is based on White racial dominant narratives and biases. This project sought to intentionally identify ways that Title V programs can transfer power to communities most impacted by inequitable governmental and public health policies.

Phase II: Healthy Beginnings with Title V: Advancing Anti-Racism in Preterm Birth Prevention

The Association of Maternal & Child Health Programs (AMCHP), with support from the Pritzker Children’s Initiative (PCI) and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, is providing capacity-building assistance and support to state MCH and local birth justice organizations to build transformational partnerships, dismantle policies and programs that perpetuate racism through inequities in funding, and support the investment in, and sustainability of community solutions that protect birth outcomes of Black, Indigenous, Hispanic/Latine/x, Asian, Pacific Islander, and other birthing people of color. AMCHP will convene six teams comprised of state MCH agencies and community-based organizations, Tribal governments, and Tribal organizations in an 18-month Learning and Practice cohort. The cohort will identify and address racism in policy, data, and funding structures at the state level that sustains inequities in perinatal health, including preterm birth.

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The Graduate Student Epidemiology Program (GSEP) is a Maternal and Child Health leadership program and internship opportunity. GSEP is funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), a department of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and has been around since 1997.  The program has trained over 400 students. After a four-year hiatus from 2017 to 2020, GSEP relaunched in Summer 2021 with a cohort of 20 students. The application process, orientation, and 10-week summer internship experience are led by the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs (AMCHP). Students will receive a $7,000 stipend provided by AMCHP.

GSEP 2022 will be a full-time, 40 hour per week remote experience requiring no relocation. While the internship will be remote, student interns will have the opportunity for optional in-person site visits during the first three weeks of their internships, with travel and lodging covered by AMCHP. Although different than in past years, this creates an opportunity for a more inclusive program.  Students who might have been unable to relocate for the summer due to expense or commitment will be able to participate this year. Remote work also expands the list of possible host sites that may have been limited due to location or cost of living (e.g., those in Hawaii, Alaska, U.S. Territories, or Freely Associated States).

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EPIDEMIOLOGY & EVALUATION

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