Monday, January 13, 2025
1/13/2025
Work in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) towards improving pregnancy planning and spacing, prevention of unintended pregnancy, improving optimal health of all family planning patients, and improving teen birth rates has been in progress for over a decade. Strong partnerships and referral systems have been established, but there are still areas for improvement and resources needed to be able to achieve the goals and objectives of the CNMI Family Planning Program. While there has been much focus on providing comprehensive family planning services and related health care, and referral services for men, women, and adolescents, others areas also need to be supported and prioritized – community outreach, educational awareness, and sustainability of the program – to ensure that the goals of the program are achieved, which the Title X Family Planning Services Grant gives the CNMI the opportunity to do. The Commonwealth Healthcare Corporation, Population Health Programs, is submitting this Title X competitive grant application for funding to continue to provide comprehensive family planning services and related health care and referral services to men, women, and adolescents with priority given to low income families and those who are uninsured, underinsured, or socioeconomically disadvantaged per regulations and guidelines of the Office of Population Affairs. The CNMI Family Planning Program has provided patients with a means to plan and space their pregnancies, prevent unintended pregnancy, and improve the overall health of men, women, and adolescents. In the CNMI, the Family Planning Program offers services on all islands; Saipan, Tinian, and Rota. The CNMI Family Planning Program is the only program in the CNMI that offers short-term contraceptives, long-acting reversible contraception, and emergency contraceptive without a prescription and without the need for parental consent, although family participation and engagement is always encouraged with adolescent patients. Of the remaining six (6) clinics in the CNMI, six offer short-term contraceptives, four offer long-acting reversible contraception, and six offer emergency contraceptive, but they are only available through a prescription and with parental consent if the patient is a minor. The CNMI Family Planning program aims to improve pregnancy planning and spacing, prevent unintended pregnancy, improve optimal health of all family planning patients, improve teen birth rate by providing education and services that reduces high risk behavior, increase access to care for Family Planning services to vulnerable and hard to reach populations, and improve infrastructure and sustainability of the program. In order to improve pregnancy planning and spacing and prevent unintended pregnancy, the program aims to increase the number of women and men with a reproductive life plan, increase the number of preconception care visits, increase the number of postpartum visits with family planning counseling, and improve the quality of client centered family planning counseling. In order to achieve the goal of improving optimal health of all family planning patients, the program plans to improve preventative exams and related health care, and reduce maternal risk by providing access to contraception and counseling, integrating multidisciplinary care for patients, and addressing social determinants of health. The program aims to improve teen birth rates by providing education and services that reduces high risk behavior, in hopes to see a decrease in births among adolescent females. The program provides education, counseling, and services to the local middle and high schools to reach a broader population. In order to achieve the goal of increasing access to care for Family Planning services to vulnerable and hard to reach populations, the program plans to increase the number of family planning patients through partnerships, community outreach, and through the mobile clinic.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).