To illustrate this, we want to take you back in time, briefly, to the year 1990. It hadn’t even been a decade since Title V had been transformed into a block grant, and it was just a year after several amendments clarified the nature of the federal-state partnerships the block grant mandated.
The late Dr. Vince Hutchins, who guided the Maternal and Child Health Bureau for 15 years and was the personal mentor for many of us here at NCEMCH, was presenting highlights of the amendments to a meeting of MCH professionals. Notes from his talk have been preserved in the NCEMCH Knowledge Base and provide an account of what he conveyed. Here are a few points:
- He noted that improved planning and accountability in the program were new goals.
- Title V program purposes needed to link to the National Health Objectives, at that time Healthy People 2000.
- An application for block grant funds was a new requirement, and it asked for such things as a statewide needs assessment and a plan for meeting those needs.
- Annual reporting was newly required of states
It’s clear that what was put in place more than 25 years ago was robust, and this has been noted by the bureau’s present associate administrator, Dr. Michael Lu.
As I’m sure you’re all aware, Dr. Lu has been leading a transformation he describes in a recent paper as “the greatest since Title V became a block grant in 1981.” He acknowledges that Title V isn’t broken. This new transformation – with the Triple Aim of reducing burden, maintaining flexibility, and increasing accountability – is intended to strengthen Title V and focus it so that it can become the best public health system for MCH populations. You probably noticed that many of the “new” requirements Dr. Hutchins mentioned in that long-ago talk are being refined by the present transformation. Viewing public health through the lens of MCH is still a critical activity.
The MCH Navigator is an invaluable place to finding resources that help you keep MCH in focus while developing your general public health skill set.
We suggest you start with our MCH Orientations Learning Bundle, which presents reviews of foundational MCH ideas tailored to different professional levels. If you’re not already familiar with the latest transformation of Title V, you’ll want to explore 30 Learning Opportunities to Support MCH 3.0. You also will want to make sure you explore Health Transformation, Interdisciplinary/Interprofessional Training, and Systems in MCH.
