Maternal and Child Health Services - The Title V Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Block Grant Program is the cornerstone of Louisiana’s public health data, policy and system-strengthening strategies for mothers and infants, children and adolescents, and children and youth with special healthcare needs. Housed within the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH) Office of Public Health (OPH), the Bureau of Family Health (BFH) is responsible for the overall direction and implementation of the Title V Program. The purpose of Louisiana’s Title V Program is to contribute to the continuous quality improvement of the state’s MCH systems of care in order to assure all MCH populations in the state have access to the quality health-related services necessary to achieve their full health potential. Essential public health services supported by the program include public health surveillance, epidemiological investigation, public health education, clinical and community-based system strengthening, regional and state coordination, and policy development. Across all of these essential services, the program promotes data-driven decision-making, evidence-based practice, and democratic participation of key constituents including policy and decision makers, clinical and community-based health service providers, and representatives of the state’s diverse MCH populations. While the Title V Block Grant continues to support some direct and enabling safety-net services, the Title V Program increasingly identifies its primary role as building the capacity of key partners in and outside of government to assure access to well-functioning and continuously improving systems of care for mothers, children, and families. The Title V Program’s approach to this effort includes identification of three key constituency groups: Policymakers, Providers, and People (MCH Populations). The program places specific emphasis on ensuring meaningful engagement of community/family leaders and community based organizations. Across all population domains, the Program works with these groups to: a) Facilitate mutual understanding of the MCH priority needs and of each groups’ role in the implementation of the essential services within the state’s MCH systems of care. b) Invest in evidence-based capacity building initiatives to strengthen each group’s contributions to the essential services within the state’s MCH systems of care. c) Invest in state and local mechanisms facilitating collaboration in the planning, monitoring, and evaluation of the policies and services within the state’s MCH systems of care. The 2026-2030 Title V Program will utilize a broad set of national outcome and performance measures to monitor effectiveness over the five year period. Data will be analyzed annually. Key performance indicators include rates of maternal mortality and severe maternal morbidity, access to post-partum visit, rate of pre-term related infant mortality, access to appropriate perinatal care, child and adolescent injury hospitalization rates, access to developmental screening, access to medical home, access to needed mental health treatment, and access to youth health transition supports. Complementing these performance measures, the program has defined a series of intermediate outcome measures to support continuous feedback and quality improvement of key intervention strategies. A bi-annual knowledge, attitude and practice survey will collect data concerning (1) constituency satisfaction with public health data products, (2) partners’ capacity to effectively disseminate key health education messages, (3) family/community leader satisfaction with training and coaching supports aiming to increase their meaningful participation in the design, monitoring, and evaluation of Title V supported programs, (4) participating partners’ perceptions of the effectiveness of Title V supported steering / advisory mechanisms, and (5) Title V Program impacts on state policy development.
