Delaware’s Title V Block Grant
Title V Maternal and Child Health
Title V of the Social Security Act reflects our nation’s commitment to improving the health and well-being of mothers, children, including children with special health care needs, and their families. It is operationalized through a block grant.
In Delaware, the Title V Block Grant serves as the foundation for much of our Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Program. The Division of Public Health (DPH) coordinates and collaborates with many organizations and other state agencies to implement activities that address grant goals and objectives.
MCH Block Grant Application
We invite you to review our FY2025 Title V Block Grant Application, which also includes our FY2023 Annual Report. Our annual Title V Application was submitted on July 15, 2024. This application, along with our State Action Plan, will guide the work we will continue to accomplish throughout the last year of this grant cycle. We are committed to continuing our collaboration with partners and community members to ensure that our efforts and resources are aligned with the priority needs of Delaware’s mothers, children, and youth with special health care needs.
The Title V Block Grant Quick Reference Guide is intended to help our partners quickly search for a topic of interest. It highlights specific areas, for ease of use.
We welcome your ideas, suggestions, and comments on our Title V Block Grant Application. If you have any additional input regarding our progress, we’d love to hear that as well.
Please reach out to Title V MCH Coordinator Elizabeth Orndorff or MCH Deputy Director Crystal Sherman with any thoughts or suggestions.
MCH FY2025 Title V Block Grant Application
FY2025 Title V Block Grant Quick Reference Guide
State Action Plan Snapshot
As part of the Title V Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Block Grant, Delaware has developed a five-year State Action Plan Snapshot to address our priority needs. Our Plan is organized by six reporting domains, which includes five MCH population domains (Women/Maternal Health, Perinatal/Infant Health, Child Health, Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs [CYSHCN], and Adolescent Health). The sixth domain addresses state-specific Cross-cutting/Systems Building needs.
This State Action Plan offers an at-a-glance snapshot for the public, our partners, and our stakeholders to better understand our five-year plan. This report identifies the priority needs within each of the six domains, the program objectives, key strategies, and relevant national and state performance measures for addressing each objective.
Delaware’s Maternal and Child Health Five-Year Plan — 2020–2025
MCH Performance Measures
The 15 National Performance Measures (NPMs) and 38 National Outcome Measures (NOMs) were established for the Title V Block Grant program. Each one crosses a maternal and child health (MCH) population domain and reflects our MCH population health status. This chart displays Delaware’s baseline data for each of the NPMs and NOMs in addition to each data source used to track the measure.
During the summer of 2021, Delaware sought to complete a Mini Needs Assessment to gauge the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on our maternal and child health population as well as our partners. Through a Stakeholder Survey, we also wanted to identify ways MCH can better support our Title V funded partners with technical assistance. This data sheet was created as a result of the survey, where 60% of our Title V partners requested MCH provide data as a way to support and assist them with their needs.
We hope this MCH Performance Measure data sheet will support our partners and our stakeholders with the very important maternal and child health work they do!
MCH Performance Measures
Executive Summary
Delaware’s Title V priorities and plans for the coming year are presented here by population domain, as defined by the federal Maternal and Child Health Bureau. These population domain “snapshots” convey a brief overview of our goals, progress, and plans for each health area. In some of the health areas, we are building on years of previous work and partnerships and have very detailed action plans for the future. In others, we are forging into new territory and will be spending the time over the course of the five-year grant cycle learning, building expertise, and establishing new relationships.
Please note that these plans represent the role that the Title V Program can play in improving the health of mothers and children, given our resources and capacity, and are not intended to be a comprehensive strategic plan to address each of the targeted health areas. Moving the needle on any of these health priority areas will require collective effort from many partners throughout the state. For more detail, please review Delaware’s full Title V Maternal and Child Health Block Grant application.
Executive Summary
National Performance Measures for Title V
There are 20 National Performance Measures that have been identified for the Title V MCH Services Block Grant. These Performance Measures are arranged under five Population Domains: Women/Maternal Health, Perinatal/Infant Health, Child Health, Adolescent Health, and Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs.
These 20 National Performance Measures are: Postpartum Visit, Postpartum Mental Health Screening, Postpartum Contraceptive Use, Perinatal Care Discrimination, Risk-Appropriate Perinatal Care, Breastfeeding, Safe Sleep, Housing Instability (Pregnancy and Child), Developmental Screening, Childhood Vaccination, Preventive Dental Visit (Pregnancy and Child), Physical Activity, Food Sufficiency, Adolescent Well-Visit, Mental Health Treatment, Tobacco Use, Adult Mentor, Medical Home, Transition, and Bullying.
Displayed below is an informational Data Sheet for each National Performance Measure to help you better understand each performance measure, the objectives of each, as well as some of Delaware’s baseline data for each performance measure.
National Performance Measures
Postpartum Visit
Postpartum Mental Health Screening
Postpartum Contraception Use
Perinatal Care Discrimination
Risk Appropriate Perinatal Care
Needs Assessment
Every five years MCH conducts a Five-Year Needs Assessment, which takes anywhere from 12 to 18 months to complete and is quite extensive in nature. As part of the process, MCH will need to identify findings, such as Delaware’s:
- Population Health Status
- Title V Program Capacity (Organizational Structure, Agency Capacity, and MCH Workforce Capacity)
- Program Partnerships, Collaboration and Coordination
- 7–10 State Priority Needs
MCH conducts a Needs Assessment every five years to obtain:
- An accurate and complete picture of the strengths and weaknesses of a state’s public health system
- Inform priorities, understand gaps, and set the agenda
- Understand, allocate, and develop available resources to meet needs
- Improve maternal, child, family, and community health outcomes
How can you help?
- Complete the Stakeholder Survey.
- Review Title V data infographics and chat n chew (qualitative) analysis for further information.
- Participate in the Key Informant Interviews, if contacted.
- Check back often for updated information and resources! Thank you!
Needs Assessment Conceptual Framework
Key Informant Interview Report
To create solutions to address the complex challenges of the Maternal and Child Health system, it is important to understand how the system and its components shape health. The Five-Year Needs Assessment process allows state Title V programs to begin to understand the complexity of these challenges, identify needs, and select priority areas of focus.
During the summer of 2024, the Maternal and Child Health section contracted Forward Consultants to conduct key informant interviews with identified stakeholders to gather insight into the strengths and needs of the MCH populations, as well as gaps and leverage points in the system of care.
A total of 17 interviews were completed with stakeholders with expertise in at least one of the five MCH population domains: 1) Women and Maternal Health; 2) Perinatal and Infant Health; 3) Child Health; 4) Adolescent Health; and 5) Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs. Informants included administrative and clinical staff as well as service coordinators. The interview asked informants to describe their organization’s role in addressing a specific population domain, its reach and population focus, its partnerships, the strengths and challenges of Delaware’s current system of care, and disparities and emerging issues.
Key Informant Interviews Final Report
Focus Group Analysis
The focus group studies, also called Chat n Chews, were commissioned by the Delaware Division of Public Health (DPH), Maternal and Child Health section. They were conducted over a period of several months, from March through May 2024, by several consultants who moderated, recruited participants, observed, transcribed notes, and prepared written reports.
The overall objective was to learn from the study’s various subgroups about the general health care and reproductive health needs and concerns of women in Delaware, in order to improve service delivery and the health outcomes of women, children, and their families.
Fifteen discussion groups were held statewide - in Wilmington for New Castle County; and in Dover, Georgetown, and Milford for Kent and Sussex counties. Moderators led two-hour discussions, with groups of approximately 10 respondents.
The 15 Focus Groups were broken down by: four Pregnant Women and Women with Children groups, four Parents of Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs groups, two Father/Partner groups, two Preconception Women groups, and two Adolescent groups.
We invite you to explore the Focus Group Analysis and Recommendations for further information.
Focus Group Analysis
Stakeholder Survey Analysis
Delaware’s needs assessment process is collecting information from stakeholders in a variety of ways, including focus groups with community members, a survey of stakeholders, and key informant interviews with partners. Each source provides important perspectives, context, and data to help the Title V program identify priorities.
The survey was ultimately distributed to 571 stakeholders, after undeliverable email addresses were removed. Of those, 62 (10.9 percent) completed the survey. This report is a summary of the findings of the Stakeholder Survey. We invite you to explore the Assessment Analysis and Recommendations for additional information.
Assessment Report
Be on the lookout
We invite you to review the qualitive analysis of our Title V Focus Group Reports, where the Division of Public Health sought to gain insight from community members. We’d also welcome you to review our Key Informant Interview Report and our Stakeholder Survey Analysis, where maternal and child health information was collected in various ways. Come back often for updated information and upcoming events.