MCH has an established, deep-rooted understanding and appreciation of the benefits that come from collaboration with families and program participants. Promoting and strengthening family partnerships remains a key priority and area of focus at DSHS. Families bring valuable input and perspective including the knowledge of their family strengths and individual needs to inform program development and priorities. Promoting a holistic, culturally relevant approach to health and wellness for all families and children, including those with special health care needs, keeps families at the center of public health care practice, policy, and research.

In repeated review of activities across the MCH domains, family input continues to be received in multiple formats. During FY19 planning, all MCH staff began using HRSA’s Continuum of Engagement, Appendix D of the Guidance, to identify the different forms of encounters. Staff collected and reviewed surveys from the National Family Support Network, Wisconsin’s MCH program, and portions of other internal MCH surveys with the intent to create or adopt a tool to measure family engagement. Four staff also participated in the National Family Engagement Network’s Standards of Quality For Family Strengthening and Support train-the-trainer training to provide input on the final tool.

In FY19, the Family Delegate participated in AMCHP’s Family Engagement Community of Practice. Topics included ‘family and youth leadership development and what’s in it for them’, ‘measuring family engagement’, ‘non-traditional partnerships, hard to reach populations, and health equity’, and ‘broad engagement of families across MCH’. Texas acquired helpful resources and a better understanding of successes and challenges to engaging families that all the states experience. 

Continuous MCH engagement with families involves collaboration through numerous forums. Internal examples include the Texas Transition to Adulthood Learning Collaborative (formerly known as the Title V Transition Workgroup) and Medical Home Learning Collaborative (formerly the Medical Home Workgroup) led by the CSHCN SDG, Youth-Adult Partnerships in MCH’s Adolescent Health Youth Action Network through Youth-Adult Partnerships, and “individual” representation within HTB Coalitions in Maternal/Infant Health. Externally, MCH serves on multiple conference planning committees including Texas Parent to Parent’s Annual Parent Conference. Active MCH participation with conference planning helps ensure the meaningful presence and voice of youth and families.

MCH provides funding for stipends to make it possible for more youth and families to attend conferences. MCH provided funding to support a youth track during the annual AMCHP conference which was held in San Antonio. Over 50 youth, State Adolescent Health Coordinators, and national partners participated in the 2-day event which was a conference highlight. Participating youth were encouraged to attend ongoing AMCHP activities and workshops throughout the conference.

Active, meaningful family engagement is a core tenet of the HRSA-funded Collaborative Improvement & Innovation Network (CoIIN) for Children with Medical Complexity (CMC) project. Soon after the project’s launch, the Texas CMC CoIIN team’s Family Leader established a Family Workgroup comprised of family members both served and not served by the primary clinic site. The Texas Family Delegate sits on this Workgroup. The Family Workgroup meets monthly, plays a key advisory role on all team activities, and participants are compensated for their time. Members of the workgroup, in partnership with Texas Parent to Parent staff, are leading the effort to survey clinic families to gauge satisfaction with clinic services. Findings will be shared with clinic staff and the project’s national partners to improve the quality of life for CMC and the well-being of their families. Membership on regional and statewide workgroups with strong family representation including the Mountain States Regional Genetics Network, Texas Council for Developmental Disabilities, and Policy Council for Children and Families offers additional, ongoing opportunities for MCH to work together and strengthen relationships with families. In addition to review by the Family Delegate, MCH receives ongoing input on Block Grant Application narratives, satisfaction surveys, and workgroup activities through established relationships with families and family organizations. The Co-Director of Texas Parent to Parent (the state’s Family Voices affiliate and Family to Family Health Information Center) remains a key member of the block grant review team. Additionally, MCH seeks family and stakeholder input through the block grant public comment process. MCH contracting requires a detailed description from the CSHCN contractors of how families will be engaged and included in proposed projects. MCH is exploring expansion of this requirement to contracts for other population domains as they are released. An additional question on family partnerships will be included on the formal MCH funding request form.

MCH engages families across the state at community events, health fairs, meetings, and workshops. Strong partnerships with community-based contractors help support initiatives and strengthen opportunities for meaningful collaboration with families (including youth) as well. MCH funded development of the TexasYouth2Adult family transition to adulthood planning tool, successfully launched in FY19, and will continue promoting awareness and utilization of the tool. MCH is committed to involving families and youth in system improvement initiatives. The Texas Family Delegate works closely with the CSHCN SDG on numerous projects. Parents, youth, and young adults are invited to join the MCH-led initiatives to share knowledge and experiences, develop strategic goals and objectives, and learn about best practices in system development and program selection.

The Texas Family Delegate, in collaboration with other MCH staff, initiated development of a Family-Professional Partnership (FPP) Strategic Plan in FY15. In FY17, MCH staff conducted a SWOT analysis to pinpoint program areas within each population domain that are actively partnering with families and identify opportunities to strengthen the family voice. Work on identifying touchpoints continues to evolve and is included in domain-specific narratives. The FPP Plan was revised in FY18. Collaboration with regional staff throughout FY19 will capture additional opportunities. The priority to build on current activities to effectively engage families and expand efforts to gather family input representing all population domains remains high.

In FY19, discussions began to increase opportunities to diversify the Family Delegate position. An internal workgroup was formed to look at the current Family Delegate role with the goal of establishing a process that allows for cross-domain representation and opportunities to expand Family Voice leadership within MCH. As the workgroup develops the process, the FPP Plan may need to be revised to reflect current work.

Input from families and youth is essential for improving outcomes in all MCH populations. Efforts to increase capacity within MCH to implement, support, scale-up and sustain quality family engagement will continue. Additionally, MCH will work with partners and stakeholders to identify opportunities for family partnerships, improve systems to reduce barriers to family engagement, encourage capacity in the workforce to encourage meaningful family participation, and identify outcomes for successful family professional partnerships in all systems.