TH DOMAIN

CHILD HEALTH DOMAIN SUMMARY/OVERVIEW FY22 ANNUAL REPORT

 

DOMAIN CONTRIBUTORS

 

Early Childhood – Division of Child and Family Health

Injury and Violence Prevention Program – Division of Prevention and Health Promotion

Dental Health Program – Division of Prevention and Health Promotion

 

DOMAIN OVERVIEW

 

INJURY & VIOLENCE PREVENTION PROGRAM: The Injury and Violence Prevention Program (IVPP) supports promising and best practice activities statewide that address leading or emerging injury issues at the population health level.  IVPP seeks to build solid infrastructure to improve the health of Virginians by increasing awareness, action, and technical assistance for and by local and state partners to assess the burden of injury, assure interventions and facilitate policy development.  Per the socioecological model, the IVP works to implement multi-level interventions (EG individual, relationship, community, societal) across sectors to influence those potentially modifiable variables, improve protective factors, equip the workforce to address primary prevention, reduce barriers for access to safety devices, and influence policy changes through a health equity lens.  IVPP staff seek family and consumer input and continues to utilize data on deaths and hospitalizations attributable to injury to inform programmatic activities. IVPP works to incorporate activities for addressing health equity by identify injury and violence prevention strategies and supporting policies and legislation to improve access to a trained workforce.  The Injury and Violence Epidemiologist, partially funded by Title V, maintains the Injury and Violence Prevention Dashboard, which provides the public with data on deaths and hospitalizations attributable to injury.  Systems allow for quick and easy access to basic injury data and enables users to customize data reports on various types of injury hospitalizations and deaths.  Data are available for both intention and unintentional injuries, and some demographic and geographic information is included to allow for more detailed analysis.  The Injury and Violence Epidemiologist routinely responds to data requests from constituents that could not be addressed through these systems. 

 

EARLY CHILDHOOD:  Effective screening and referral systems improve outcomes for children and strengthen communities.  VDH is investing Title V Funds in six Developmental Screening Initiative (DSI) Hubs, each led by a local coordinating partner.  DSI Hubs bring together screening and referral stakeholders to:

• Increase screening using a parent-administered evidence-based tool (ASQ, ASQ SE)
• Engage local partners to collaborate and coordinate local screening and referral processes
• Lead community awareness campaigns about healthy child development and the importance of developmental screening 

 

DENTAL HEALTH PROGRAM: The DHP performs many duties including the provision of the following:  Educational activities and resources to a wide variety of partner groups to promote proper oral hygiene and support prevention services and access to dental care; direct clinical preventive services and assistance with establishing a dental home; quality assurance review to assure a competent public health oral health workforce; and, surveillance and evaluation activities to monitor and track dental disease rate and trends as part of program assessment for effectiveness and planning. 

 

STATE ACTION PLAN UPDATES

 

	PRIORITY 1 Finances as a root cause:  Increase the financial agency and well being of MCH populations
OBJECTIVE	Decrease the rate of hospitalization for nonfatal injury per 100,000 children ages 0-9 from 101.5 (HCUP-State Inpatient Databases (SID) – 2015) to 81.0
PERFORMANCE MEASURE	NPM 7.1:  Rate of hospitalization for non-fatal injury per 100,000 children, ages 0-9
Evidence-based or –informed strategy measures	ESM7.1.2- Number of child safety seats disseminated through the LISSDEP network

 

 

 

Strategy 1:  Eliminate financial barriers to safety devices by equipping income-eligible families with child safety seats through the Low Income Safety Seat Distribution and Education Program (LISSDEP)

 

The proper use of child safety seats and booster seats is required for all children under the age of eight by Virginia Code 46.2-1095. Pursuant to VA code 46.2-1098, VDH coordinates the Low-Income Safety Seat Distribution and Education Program (LISSDEP) to provide safety seats through a network of 126 dissemination sites statewide to indigent families through revenue derived from fines collected from violations of the CPS law. LISSDEP helps to remove financial barriers and increase access to safety devices and proper education for reducing motor vehicle related injuries. Local health departments operating as LISSDEP distribution sites support program coordination and Child Passenger Safety education for indigent families that addressed the proper usage and installation of programmatic safety seats and booster seats.   

 

Families are provided a no cost safety seat after receiving education and training in proper installation and usage.  Families must demonstrate proficiency in skills mastered.   

 

In kind contribution of time and effort of non MCH-IVPP staff supports this effort.  

 

IVPP was able to use non-MCH funded staff time to mitigate program challenges due to the continued presence of COVID-19. Local health departments continued to play a lead role in community vaccinations and boosters which posed a barrier to completing LISSDEP activities. The vast majority of LISSDEP distribution sites suspended or greatly reduced the issuance of safety seats. Additionally, local health departments faced staffing shortages, which further limited their ability to resume normal activities. Active sites continued to adopt strategies to limit group sizes, leveraging other required contact appointments for LISSDEP distribution, and providing education in its entirety outside in parking lots. IVPP LISSDEP continues to provide coordinator and educator training and technical support to move sites towards becoming fully operational. IVPP completed a strategic needs/asset assessment plan to help identify strategies gaps and opportunities to direct future activities. Addressing site administrative burden and recognizing the value of family voice and choice in LISSDEP operations were two key takeaways from this effort to increase enrollment and broaden the program reach. This document will guide strategies to strengthen site capacity and service execution. Additionally, a CPS strategic communication plan was developed to support the distribution of seats in localities without LISSDEP sites and assist in building targeted partnerships with entities to improve equitable access to seats by high-risk groups (i.e. high impact and low-income populations). During FY22, 104 seats were distributed to income eligible families (96 convertibles, 8 booster).  

 

Virginia Broadcast Solutions (VBS) serves as Virginia's sole source partner in the delivery of health education to the public through the Public Education Partnership (PEP) agreement. VBS works through the NCSA program to delivery health education messaging, which is designed to help organizations that operate in the public interest, such as non-profits and state agencies, get their messages heard in an organized manner. The agency provides pre-recorded spots that the VAB distributes to its member stations. The agency then receives advertising time donated by VAB broadcast stations. Station affidavits confirm when and where the message has aired. As Child Passenger Safety Week annually provides the opportunity to heighten the awareness of the public in safe transportation for Children, VBS supported the VDH Child Passenger Safety team to launch a communication campaign during this period. A partnership with VBS to launch an awareness campaign during 2021 CPS was completed and executed. Regions included South West Virginia, Rockingham/Orange County, and Coastal or Eastern Virginia. Regions were selected based on having low seatbelt use and presence of a safety seat check station. Communication mediums used were radio, digital ads, and social media ads consistent with the media preferences of the targeted audience age group (caregivers aged 20-45) . While evaluation metrics were implemented for digital and social media ads, there was no rigorous evaluation measure for radio outside of the anticipated broadcast reach. Results for digital and social media ads exceeded expectations in number of impressions (934,388 SM, 1,335,413 D), clicks (6,919 SM, 1,682 D), and click through (0.74% compared to 0.60% for similar SM campaigns, 0.13% compared to 0.06% for similar campaigns). The campaign materials were additionally shared with 36 Safety Seat Check Sites serving 57 localities. Web hits reached 340 unique users with 428 resource items downloaded. The number of safety seats checked by the VDH SSCS Network increased from 229 in October 2021 to 253 in November 2021. 

 

EQUITY CENTERING:  VDH IVPP addresses health opportunity by applying CDC’s Core Principles Model.  Activities support:  1) Improving access to services; 2) ensuring culturally appropriate services; 3) supporting healthcare providers to reduce stigma; 4) offering structural support, such as housing referrals and transportation assistance; 5) informing Virginias about risks that lead to injuries and violence in their communities; 6) linking people to care and recover, and lessening harms; and 7) improving access to programs that address other risk factors for injury. IVPP uses data to inform action.

 

CONSUMER/FAMILY ENGAGEMENT & PARTNERSHIP: VDH IVPP provides an opportunity for family and consumer input into LISSDEP. Staff continue to work with the Division of Population Health Data to construct an exit survey to evaluate programmatic education and technical support efforts. 

 

CHALLENGES/BARRIERS: LISSDEP Network site staff distributing child safety seats continued to be deployed during the project year to manage COVID-19 prevention responsibilities within health departments.  LISSDEP completed a needs assessment during the project year, and it was found that Network sites at all local health departments require financial support in the form of time and effort allocation so that deliverables can be met during epidemic deployment.

 

SUCCESS STORY:  LISSDEP migrated from required annual, in-person, technical training for site safety seat educators to a three-year certification period.  LISSDEP introduced a web-based technical refresher training on TRAIN (VDH’s Internal training portal for all VDH staff) for staff to revisit installation techniques during their certification period if desired; this is not a requirement.  New staff to the program are required to successfully complete in-person technical training prior to providing education or issuance to seat recipients.  LISSDEP is in the process of piloting hybrid training through REDCap for eligible seat recipients, to streamline processing and seat issuance for clientele and distribution site staff.  Removing barriers, inclusive of lost work/school time and travel cost, will allow more families to access free safety seats and education in correct use and installation, thereby helping to reduce motor vehicle injuries.

 

Strategy 2:  Work in tandem with interagency teams in partnership with IVPP to focus on the intersection between child health and transportation

 

In other areas of Child Passenger Safety and Pedestrian Safety, the IVPP provides in kind contribution of time and effort of non MCH-IVPP staff to serve on pedestrian safety interagency teams focused on the intersection between child health and transportation, as facilitated by the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, Department of Transportation, Virginia State Police, along with other state agencies and non-profits.   

 

VDH IVPP non-MCH funded staff provided in kind contribution and work with interagency teams to address pedestrian safety. In-kind contribution includes participation with the Pedestrian Safety Task Force, PATHS (Promoting Active Transportation Safety and Health), Virginia Statewide Bike/Pedestrian Advisory Committee, Complete Streets Richmond, Plan RVA (Active Transportation), and State Trails Advisory Committee. All listed committees and workgroups are intra-agency with representation from multiple state agencies, locality organizations, and other civic groups. With jurisdictions in Virginia adopting Vision Zero and Complete Streets, the VDH IVP Program views urban planning and access to safe green space as a long-term strategy. Existing programs, such as Park RX and development of traffic gardens, can be adopted and expanded on to include local parks and create safe spaces for all to practice and learn safe active transportation. VDH IVPP began the creation of a feasibility plan in pedestrian safety and bicycling behavior initiatives in the reporting period.  

 

	PRIORITY 2 Strong systems of care for all children:  Strengthen the continuum supporting physical/socio-emotional development (i.e., screening, assessment, referral, followup, coordinated community-based care)
OBJECTIVE	By June 30, 2025, increase the percent of children (ages 10-71 months) receiving a developmental screening using a parent-completed screening tool from 29.1% (NSCH 2016-2017) to 31.1%
PERFORMANCE MEASURE	NPM 6:  Percent of children, ages 9 through 35 months, who received a developmental screening using a parent-completed screening tool in the past year
Evidence-based or –informed strategy measures	Number of LHDs, community partners, and providers receiving developmental screening resources, training, or TA

 

 

Strategy 1:  Support the development of high functioning community/regional partnerships led by 6 Ready Region ‘Hubs’ that coordinate and improve local developmental screening and referral systems improvements

Virginia’s Title V grant at VDH has a comprehensive strategic plan, based on Title V needs assessment results. Virginia’s plan addresses priority needs, including improving developmental screening systems.  Through this effort, the VDH is partnering with the Virginia Early Childhood Foundation (VECF) to pilot system improvements in six Ready Region Coalition hubs to improve early identification, family engagement, and developmental screening.  In partnership with the VDH, Title V, VECF is supporting Ready Region partners in six communities across the Commonwealth to spearhead better understanding and ultimately better developmental screening and community partnerships. Important findings from the pilot sites may contribute to the current proposed implementation through Zero to Three. These include:  

 

1. Continued identification and explication of community referral pathways and follow-up procedures; DSI hub progress working with partners to establish agreed-on systems of tracking, documenting, and analyzing/improving referrals pathways will provide a blueprint for effective screening and referral networks (Centralized System);   
2. Ongoing emphasis on training and technical assistance that equips screening partners to use the Enterprise and Family Access systems with proficiency across a variety of early childhood settings, with an eye toward optimum timing and cycling of such training and assistance to align with anticipated staff turnover and bandwidth. Support for engaging pediatricians to be part of a larger screening initiative – DSI Hubs continue to report extreme difficulty in reaching pediatric practices, despite repeated outreach (Qualified Workforce, Centralized System);
3. Ongoing strategy development for increasing the use of digital screening tools by parents, recognizing the need to provide TA support and training for families to understand developmental screening, how to use the tools and talk with their primary care doctor when their child is screened (Family Participation). This is consistently supported over the past 5 years in the Children’s National Survey for parent report for developmental screening (2018-2022);
4. Ongoing expansion and strengthening of partnerships to build collaborative systems within communities (Community Partnerships);
5. Provide family childcare programs with training in the ASQ tool and developmental milestones to support increasing the number of children screened and raising awareness about child development (Qualified Workforce).  

 

PARTNERSHIPS: The six DSI Hubs in this report are identified as follows:

United Way of South Hampton Roads (UWSHR)          United Way of Southwest Virginia (UWSWVA)

United Way of Greater Charlottesville (UWGC) United Way of Roanoke Valley (UWRV)

Smart Beginnings Greater Harrisonburg (SBGH) Smart Beginnings Southeast (SBSE)

 

 

One hundred forty-one active partners were identified in FY23 Quarter 1, out of one hundred eighty-five total partners. This represents a significant drop from the FY22 Q4 report of 184 partners, as previous quarterly reports did not discern between active and paused or ended partnerships. This report corrects that omission. The most significant drop in partners actively participating in the DSI project was in Early Childhood Care or Education Providers. The breakdown of active partners provided by DSI Hub leaders is as follows: 2 Care Connection for Children; 0 Childcare Resource and Referral Regional Office; 0 Child Development Center; 20 Community Nonprofits; 58 Early Childhood Care or Education Providers (ECCE); 3 Early Intervention; 0 Family/Community Representative; 10 Head Start/Early Head Start; 2 Health Departments; 8 Home Visiting Programs, 1 Hospitals; 2 Infant and Toddler Specialist; 7 Local Department of Social Services; 3 Mental Health/Behavioral Health Providers; 4 Pediatricians/Pediatric Clinics; 1 Private therapy (OT, PT, speech, etc.) provider; 10 Virginia Preschool Initiative; 3 Virginia Quality; 7 Other. 

 

As of this quarter, DSI Hubs report 40 MOUs (Memorandums of Understanding) in place with their active regional partners, with 30 pending, and 1 not indicated. Of the active partners, ninety-two (92) partners are administering screens, with an additional 21 planning to in the future. Data sharing agreements are in place with 31 partners, with 28 pending.  

Of the 2,063 documented screens in FY23 Q1, 1,251 were in the healthy range, 656 were in the monitoring zone, and 156 were flagged for referral. Of those flagged for referral, DSI Hubs reported 141 were referred for services. This indicates a referral rate of 90% across all DSI Hubs, though individual rates of referral vary, and it is difficult to ensure accuracy of duplicated screens for individual children. For example, one site, UWRV, which reported the highest number of documented screens in the previous quarter, was unable to collect screening data from the two large pediatric practices that have recently joined their hub in time for this report. They would like to amend their numbers for this report when that data is available. Of note, while UWRV reported the highest number of total screens (3,644) in FY22 Q4, it reported the lowest numbers in the Monitoring Zone (4) and Referral Zone (2), and only 2 actual referrals: deeper investigation revealed this was a direct result of the two pediatric practices sharing screening totals, but not screening scores, with the UWRV DSI Hub. Thus, it is not possible to infer how many referrals resulted from the documented screens. 

 

Highlights: The importance of nurturing relationships with community partners, even when there may not be an immediate return, continues to be a major theme across the hubs. SBGH reports that collaborating with Virginia Public Media, which has significant outreach capacity, is proving fruitful as they continue efforts to establish trust with hard-to-reach families who might not be participating in ECCE settings and/or may have language barriers. Across most DSI Ready Region Hubs, in-person outreach and/or technical assistance provision to community partners is beginning to occur, though the COVID-19 Pandemic continues to influence activities. 

 

The number of screens documented by SBGH in FY23 Q1 increased 38% over FY22 Q1, which the DSI Hub leader attributes to relationship building and increased messaging efforts with local partners. Hub navigators have been able to interact with providers directly as classroom observers, which has allowed them to start conversations about using the ASQ screening tool. Hub sites have also been engaging ECCE providers on an individual basis as part of its outreach strategy and reports an increase in the use of the ASQ tool due to provision of individualized technical assistance.  The use of in-person site visits to check in with ECCE site administrators and provide technical assistance has helped with increasing screening.  

 

The DSI Hub Leaders express the desire for continued guidance with messaging in their quarterly reports, in communications with the DSI Project Coordinator, and in peer learning sessions. The recommendation is continued exploration of strategies for increasing public awareness about developmental milestones and screening in FY23 through greater utilization of the LTSAE materials, which provide a comprehensive approach to messaging. Exploration of approaches taken by other states that have resulted in increased parental uptake of the ASQ screening tool is also recommended. In addition, we want to understand the differences more clearly between how DSI Hubs are messaging providers, and their messaging to parents to encourage the use of the ASQ screening tool in FY23.  

 

During the last quarter of FY22, the project coordinator at VECF implemented “DSI Open Office Hours,” a non-mandatory, once-a-month peer learning session taking place on the third Thursday of the month, where DSI Hub Leaders and Navigators can informally share their current challenges and learning edges. For FY23, these successful learning sessions will continue, bringing in subject matter experts and/or representatives from VDH to help inform these discussions. 

 

EQUITY CENTERING: The ECCS Advisory Council , subrecipient (Virginia Early Childhood Foundation (VECF), and Program Director, spent considerable time exploring the concept of equity.  Equity, for the purposes of the Virginia developmental screening plan, is defined as:  Individuals have access to the resources and services they need.  Equity is addressed in several ways.  It is first introduced through the definition section preceding the developmental screening plan.  This intentionally grounds the reader and is meant to lay the groupwork for what means by the term.  Secondly, it is threated throughout the goals and activities and remains a key value.  The hub teams are committed to advance equity through its work and to ensure co-ownership and joint action.  The purpose is to ensure that individuals have access to the resources and services they need.

 

FAMILY ENGAGEMENT/PARTNERSHIP:  The importance of nurturing relationships with community partners, even when there may not be an immediate return, continues to be a major theme across the hubs. SBGH reports that collaborating with Virginia Public Media, which has significant outreach capacity, is proving fruitful as they continue efforts to establish trust with

hard-to-reach families who might not be participating in ECCE settings and/or may have language barriers. Across most DSI Hubs, in-person outreach and/or technical assistance provision to community partners is beginning to occur, though the COVID-19 Pandemic continues to influence activities.

CHALLENGES/BARRIERS: 

• Support for engaging pediatricians to be part of a larger screening initiative - OSI Hubs continue to report extreme difficulty in reaching pediatric practices, despite repeated outreach.
• Ongoing strategy development for messaging outreach, particularly to historically excluded and/or hard to reach populations, and adapting to reduced opportunities for in-person contact with parents due to COVID-19 to aim toward consistent, effective messaging that build awareness about child development and the value of screening (Effective Messaging)
• Ongoing strategy development for increasing the use of the digital screening tool by parents, particularly given closure and/or reduced capacity of key screening facilities due to COVID-19 (Family Participation)
• A conflict emerged this quarter between some ECCE screening partners' capacity to conduct ASQ screening, and their adoption of the Virginia Kindergarten Readiness Program (VKRP) assessments, which are encouraged but not required in Mixed Delivery Grant programs for three- and four-year-olds in the fall and spring of FY23. This has resulted in several ECCE screening partners declining to continue to participate in the OSI project. Staff shortages combined with high staff turnover continue to affect the attempt to embed ASQ screening and referral within ECCE settings, with most Hubs reporting a ripple effect of the pandemic on ECCE screening and referral system capacity. Further, the significant attrition of ECCE providers (a decline of twenty over the course of the project) and Head Start/Early Head Start (a decline of three), as well as lack of response to OSI Hub outreach to potential and/or prior partners speaks to the combined burden of low capacity, staff shortages and turnover, and multiple priorities in the Early Childhood Care and Education Sector generally. UWSWVA and UWRV were hit hard by this trifecta, losing 14 ECCE screening partners and 3 Head Start programs. UWSWVA and UWRV also report difficulties in engaging pediatric partners. Finally, UWSWVA's coordination of screening with Mount Rogers Health District has been slowed by the Health District's requirement of high-level approval before sharing screening counts with the OSI Hub.

 

SUCCESS STORIES:

 

 

 

	PRIORITY 3:  Oral Health
OBJECTIVE	By June 30, 2025, increase the percent of children (ages 1 through 11) who had a preventive dental visit in the past year from 78.9% (NSCH 2017-2018) to 83.7%
PERFORMANCE MEASURE	NPM 13.2:  Percent of children, ages 1 through 17, who had a preventive dental visit in the past year.
Evidence-based or –informed strategy measures	ESM 13.2.1 – Number of Regional Oral Health Collaborative Projects that implemented work plans to increase dental visits among children (ages 0-11 years) and adolescents (12-17 years)

 

 

 

Strategy 1:  Maintain and expand existing MCH-focused dental education programs to improve oral health for individuals across the lifespan, to include advising on oral health integration in primary care settings, education for home visitors, school-aged oral health education, and emerging needs of adolescents

 

New programming specifically aimed at advancing the oral health of adolescents began in FY21. Activities included updating the School-aged Oral Health Curriculum to include emerging topics for adolescents including vaping, and HPV exposure and vaccination and developing trainings and educational material related to these new topics of focus to highlight the importance of vape cessation and HPV prevention to combat oral cancer, as well as early detection of this disease in youth and young adults. Staff will continue this work and identify new partnerships to expand the reach of programming to include advising on oral health integration in primary care settings, education for home visitors, school-aged oral health education, and emerging needs of adolescents.  Staff will also continue to provide pertinent MCH related information to partners as a member of the Early Dental Home Workgroup and Project Immunize Virginia. The Early Dental Home Workgroup consists of partners from dentistry, early childhood education, and perinatal and pediatric health, as well as state agencies that offer social and health support services. The workgroup identifies promising practices and techniques to increase the number of young kids and pregnant women who access dental care. Project Immunize Virginia (PIV) is a team of energetic and innovative health professionals, business, and community members that believe every community in the Commonwealth can be free of vaccine-preventable disease by increasing immunizations across the lifespan. PIV achieves this by promoting partnerships and using effective strategies among its member organizations throughout the Commonwealth.

 

Strategy 2:  Continue to foster a network of 6 regional Oral Health Alliances to conduct regional needs assessments and implement systems change and data-sharing initiatives to improve the oral health of all Virginians, with emphasis on pregnant women, and children and adolescents ages 1-17 

 

The regional alliances continue to adapt to meet the needs of the regions they represent and the goals they serve. Members of all six regional alliances (Northern Virginia, Hampton Roads, Central, Southside, Roanoke, and SWVa)  alliances are focused predominantly on ensuring Medicaid members are utilizing the new adult dental benefit that is available for them.  To that end, they share Catalyst-created and regionally-specific resources with community-based service providers to share information about what services are covered and how to find a dentist that treats patients. Based on feedback from our alliance members, these resources have been translated into over ten languages to ensure a wide reach.  To date, 177,000 Virginia adults and 7,000 pregnant members (these are two separate categories) have accessed services. Alliance members also continually share information with the state’s Medicaid program to offer feedback about challenges members are experiencing accessing care.  One of the biggest challenges is a limited provider pool.  To address this, the Medicaid agency has partnered with the Virginia Dental Association to create a recruitment campaign to draw new dentists to the Medicaid program.  To date, nearly 100 new providers have enrolled.  Alliance members identified the need for high-touch outreach for pregnant members.  As such, Catalyst awarded a microgrant to Birth in Color to provide oral health education to the organization’s doulas and pregnant participants.  To date, 120 doulas have received oral health training (and indicated a commitment to include oral health education in patient engagement), and 250 pregnant clients received education and oral hygiene supplies.  Members of regional alliances and the 127 members of the early dental home workgroup also share oral health information to their networks to aid pregnant and family members in accessing oral health services. 

  

Strategy 3: Convene statewide groups focused on targeted oral health issues and facilitate collaboration and work plan development, and provide leadership and oversight to guide initiatives 

 

All of Catalyst’s strategies within the MCH program are designed to influence changes to the system that promote more equitable and easier access to oral health services for pregnant people and children and safe, trusted, fluoridated drinking water. Catalyst’s Future of Public Oral Health (FPOH) workgroup was a collaborative project that implemented work plans to increase dental visits among pregnant people and children by focusing on technology and innovative, replicable quality improvement projects with safety net clinics. Our school-based oral health programs continued to bring together various partners who were previously unconnected to help school age children get direct access to necessary oral health care. For example, conversations spurred by Catalyst opened the door to continued collaborations that can provide medical care and vaccinations to the 6,000-plus children in the Harrisonburg school district and help replicate these partnership models across the state.  

 

Many activities occurred during the reporting period as outlined in the monthly reports. In summary, these activities included conducting community outreach events to increase awareness of program services, training staff and stakeholders on evidence-based practices, working with clinics to implement telehealth services to improve access to care, and collaborating with community partners to enhance service delivery. 

 

All activities were designed to influence performance measures to increase dental visits among pregnant people and children and collaborative projects. Across the board, we positively influenced those measures through MCH-focused dental education programs, regional activities, and several active workgroups like FPOH, Water Equity Taskforce (WET) and the Early Dental Home (EDH) workgroup.   

 

Our partners across grassroots projects, alliances, and workgroups continued to identify barriers to accessing oral health care including myriad COVID-related repercussions so that we could implement work plans to address access issues at the community-level. Our strategies to provide MCH-related education, foster regional programs, and convene statewide partners were all met through various activities like fluoride varnish and special needs dentistry trainings, completion of the 2022 Oral Health Report Card and Teledentistry Toolkit, and successful convenings for the FPOH, WET, and EDH workgroups.  

 

In addition to the 2022 Oral Health Report Card and Teledentistry Toolkit, the program has produced various deliverables, including reports on program progress and service utilization, stakeholder meeting summaries, and additional training materials for staff and stakeholders. The program also provided technical assistance to partners and stakeholders, including training on evidence-based practices and implementation support for telehealth services. Additionally, Catalyst held the 11th Annual Summit, which brought health equity to the forefront and provided a forum for education and networking to hundreds of stakeholders.  

 

The program has had several successes and impacts. For example, the program has increased community awareness of program services through high-touch technical support to increase care coordination, resulting in increased service utilization among community partners. The program has also trained staff and stakeholders on evidence-based practices, which has led to improved service quality and outcomes for program participants. Notably, Catalyst increased workgroup membership, adding new perspectives that have enhanced the work plans’ abilities to address topics like telehealth, health equity, and school-based oral health care. For example, a new FPOH technology workgroup member created a teledentistry workflow to share with school nurses so they can use teledentistry in their programs. Additionally, 90% of participants at Catalyst’s Annual Summit participants reported that the sessions were informative for their work; session topics covered the future of equitable public oral health care, improving care for Virginia’s LGBTQ community, leveraging social determinants of health, the history of racism in healthcare, and creating equitable policies in Virginia.