MCH/CSHCN have established partnerships that help expand the work of reaching women, infants, children (including CSHCN), and families. Federal and non-federal funds are leveraged to deliver programs and services in the state. MCH/CSHCN staff maintain working relationships with Title V and non-Title V Programs to create a statewide system of collaboration. The levels of cooperation with various partners can include networking, information sharing, collaboration, integration, formal contractual agreements, joint training or co-sponsorship of events. Most all of the programs/agencies participated in the 5-year needs assessment.

The Utah Women and Newborns Quality Collaborative (UWNQC) is a statewide network of professionals, hospitals and clinics dedicated to improving the health outcomes for Utah women and infants using evidence-based practice guidelines and quality improvement processes. The UWNQC safety bundle sub-committee works to implement maternal safety bundles promoted by the Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health. Currently, Utah is working to implement the Care for Pregnant and Postpartum People with Substance Use Disorder safety bundle. This statewide collaboration between hospitals, public health, and the Office of Substance Abuse and Mental Health. Other projects include addressing screening and referral for perinatal mental health conditions and identifying and addressing maternal and neonatal safety issues related to out of hospital births.

The Maternal and Infant Health Program (MIHP) convened the Well-woman Coalition with members representing public health, health care, and community organizations. Related to NPM-1, this group will create a strategic plan that defines routine preventive care and describes the most common barriers to receiving that care. They will also recommend changes at the state, local, and systems levels to improve care and encourage all women to view preventive care as self-care. Through this effort, we hope to create a sustainable program with targeted messaging that encourages and empowers women to receive routine preventive care.

Utah’s Perinatal Mortality Review Committee is a committee of doctors, nurses, mental health, and public health professionals who volunteer to review infant and maternal deaths in Utah. The committee reviews each death to determine contributing factors, assess preventability, and make recommendations for prevention of future deaths. A death is considered preventable if the committee determines that there was at least some chance of the death being averted by one or more reasonable changes to patient, family, provider, facility, system and/or community factors. The recommendations from this committee help drive prevention activities.

MotherToBaby Utah (MTB UT) collaborated with various state, national, and international groups and professionals, through workgroups, committees, and projects, to improve the health of pregnant and lactating individuals and their babies. One example was that MTB UT led Utah’s Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Workgroup to promote avoiding alcohol during pregnancy to prevent fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. Partners included representatives from mental health, birth defect prevention, substance abuse prevention, and other organizations. A second example was that MTB UT led the Organization of Teratology Information Specialists’/MotherToBaby seminars to provide ongoing professional development through the review of research articles twice a month under the HRSA/MCHB Maternal and Child Environmental Health Network cooperative agreement. Partners from other teratogen information centers, pharmaceutical companies, obstetricians, pediatricians, public health professionals, and others in the United States and Europe participated in the seminars.

The Office of CSHCN has found the pandemic to be an opportunity to reduce silos and increase partnerships to be more effective with service provision, working on medical home and transition to adulthood initiatives. CSHCN took the opportunity and initiated engaging with a variety of stakeholders (approximately thirty) and assessed the current system of care. Some of the partners include: University of Utah Medical and Intermountain systems who service the CSHCN populations; Utah Parent Center, Help Me Grow (United Way), Local Health Departments, Community Health Centers, Human Services, Division of Child & Family Services, Early Intervention and community providers. These medical home and transition focused partnership groups (curriculum, referral, marketing and quality assurance/surveys groups) met monthly throughout the past year. All participating stakeholders are implementing processes in a uniform and consistent manner. We have momentum and excitement as we have found we can provide more to our populations if we team together. We have access to more resources, knowledge, funding and creative ideas.

This past year, the Utah Birth Defect Network in collaboration with the Utah Down Syndrome Foundation has created a new resource for families who have recently received a new diagnosis of Down syndrome. Contents of the guide includes; navigating Down syndrome in the first year, myths and truths, support groups, milestone markers, medical specialists, Medicaid, medical home portal, Utah Parent Center and many CSHCN resources such as Integrated Services, and Baby Watch Early Intervention. The booklets are available online as well as being distributed across the state at various hospitals, maternal fetal medicine clinics, and physician offices and included in new parent gift baskets handed out at the hospital.

The Early Childhood Utah Advisory Council convenes 28 diverse voting members representing different subsets of the Early Childhood Committees. There are five subcommittees: Health and Access to Medical Home, Data and Research, Parent Engagement, Social, Emotional and Mental Health, and Early Care and Education. These subcommittees have additional membership and together represent over 85 people from various early childhood areas. The subgroups meet monthly and work to develop recommendations for the Governor's Commission. These relationships have opened opportunities to bring on new stakeholders who are vested in early childhood development and develop ways to improve the system of care. Three recommendations were brought to the Commission this past year and are in process: early childhood data, comprehensive developmental screening, and training the early childhood workforce.

The Oral Health Coalition continues to meet quarterly with partners and ensure oral health is a priority. The Coalition has been advocating for additional funding from the Governor’s Office to expand State Oral Health Services. This year MCH staff convened partners (community health center, hospitals, local health department, and the University of Utah School of dentistry) to design and submit an application for funding for the HRSA Oral Health Innovation grant, which was awarded. The application demonstrates the potential for expanded infrastructure, increased workforce development and training to decrease emergency room visits in an area designated as a dental health provider shortage area (HPSA).

As was mentioned above, COVID-19 has provided challenges for service delivery, but has also provided an opportunity for increased engagement from partners. Attendance and access at meetings has significantly increased across all groups and many partners have requested to maintain meetings via teleconference.