North Dakota Health and Human Services (HHS) is inviting the public to comment on the state's application for Federal Title V Block Grant funds that support preventive and primary care health services for women and children for the next federal fiscal year (Oct. 1 - Sept. 30, 2024).
The application includes a description of North Dakota’s plan to provide:
- Preventive and primary care services for pregnant women, mothers and infants to age one,
- Preventive and primary care services for children and adolescents, and
- Family-centered, community-based, coordinated care and the development of community-based systems of services for children with special health care needs and their families.
HHS conducted a statewide needs assessment to identify service gaps and barriers and to determine important needs in North Dakota’s maternal and child population. These five goals, which are based on national performance measures, were identified as priorities through this process:
- Increase the percentage of women who have an annual wellness visit,
- Increase the percentage of infants who are breastfed and who are breastfed exclusively through six months of age,
- Increase the percentage of children and adolescents who are physically active,
- Increase the percentage of adolescents who have a wellness visit, and
- Increase the percentage of adolescents with and without special health care needs who have received the services needed to transition to adult health care.
In addition to these five federal performance measures, the Title V staff also monitors North Dakota’s progress on three crosscutting state priority measures and a variety of health indicators.
Goals for these state priorities include:
- Reduce annual motor vehicle crash fatalities to fewer than 75 by 2025,
- Support workforce development for State Title V program leaders and staff to meet current public health Maternal Child Health policy and programmatic requirements around health transformation, including ongoing transformation of the Title V Block Grant, and
- Implement all North Dakota state mandates delegated to the HHS Title V/Maternal and Child Health Programs.
To view the draft block grant application, visit hhs.nd.gov/north-dakota-mch-work-plans. Copies will also be provided upon request.
Individuals can provide public comment by July 27, 2023, by email to krhruby@nd.gov, by phone to (701) 328-4854, 711 (TTY) or by mail to North Dakota Health and Human Services’ Public Health Division, Attn: Kimberly Hruby, 600 E. Boulevard Ave., Dept. 325, Bismarck, N.D., 58505-0250.