Child Health: Application Plan

FY 2023 Plan for Application Year

Idaho intends to continue with the same priorities, strategies, ESMs, NPMs, and SPM that were identified in the Annual Report section for the Child Health domain.

The MCH Program will continue to fund strategies to improve nutrition and decrease child obesity by partnering with the Idaho Physical Activity and Nutrition (IPAN) Program to increase the number of childcare providers trained on healthy behaviors for children (ESM 8.1) and enhance current strategies focused on reducing overweight and obesity among children.

Based on the 2020 Needs Assessment (NA), the MCH Program will continue the priority need of improving childhood immunization rates. The state aims to collaborate with the Idaho Immunization Program (IIP) to increase vaccination education and vaccine uptake among MCH populations, and will use the state-created performance measure of the percentage of children at kindergarten enrollment who are adequately immunized to measure progress on this effort (SPM 2).

Idaho also identified oral health and dental care as a top health need during the 2020 NA. To address this, the strategy to fund the Idaho Oral Health Program (IOHP) to provide dental sealants, apply fluoride varnish, offer oral health education, and refer elementary school students to dental homes will continue through September 2025. The objective will be to increase the percentage of school-age children who receive preventive dental care, which will be measured by the percentage of 3rd grade students that have dental sealants on at least one tooth recommended for sealants (ESM 13.2). These strategies are explained in more detail below.

Childhood Physical Activity and Nutrition

The MCH Program and IPAN will continue to meet quarterly to discuss opportunities to collaborate on childhood obesity interventions with a focus on children in childcare and after-school settings. In FY 2023, IPAN will further shift the program funding focus to support additional Farm to ECE sites, with less emphasis on utilizing the lending libraries for physical activity items and educational programs. This shift is based on conversations with PHD coordinators and assessing local community priorities. IPAN will continue work with the seven PHDs to provide BAK and HKHF trainings to childcare providers when requested and expand services to include PHD-level training of the Farm to ECE program. The PHDs will also promote and provide parent educational materials through their individual web sites and offices. 

Immunizations

In FY 2023, the IIP anticipates the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines for children 5 years old and younger. The IIP hopes that the focus on this age group will bring more awareness to catching up on routine vaccinations. IIP is eager to leverage some of the success from COVID-19 activities and apply them to the childhood program. The IIP aims to continue expansion of their network to provide education, address vaccine hesitancy, and encourage a larger return to routine vaccinations.

On major activity the IIP will implement as part of these efforts is routine listening sessions and community assessments. A new staff member will be hired to manage the events and data collection, which will help inform the program about public opinions, questions, concerns, and beliefs about vaccinations. The listening sessions will be focused on specific populations, including but not limited to: pregnant women, young families, adolescents, the disabled community, racial and ethnic groups, and rural communities.

To improve provider education and address vaccine hesitancy, the IIP will partner with a motivational interviewing trainer to provide a series of sessions to Idaho providers. The trainer presented at the IIP’s annual spring conference and audience reception was overwhelmingly positive. Additionally, IIP will revive their provider education series with regular webinars and encourage participation by offering continuing education credits (CECs) to attendees. Offering CECs will be possible through a partnership with the Arizona Nurses Association, an accredited approver of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.

Pediatric Oral Health

The IOHP will continue to subgrant with the seven PHDs in Idaho to provide direct clinical services through fluoride varnish clinics and school-based sealant clinics, along with oral health education to children, adolescents, and pregnant women. The subgrants include the delivery of oral health screenings or assessments and fluoride varnish applications to children with a specific focus on ages 0-5. Fluoride varnish programs will be provided at an array of locations such as WIC clinics, Head Start locations, childcare centers, and elementary schools. For children ages 6 through 11, the IOHP will subgrant with the PHDs to deliver school-based dental sealant programs, which include the delivery of oral health screenings, fluoride varnish applications, and dental sealants as needed.

In FY 2023, the IOHP will partner with the DHW marketing and media contractor to duplicate the successful maternal and oral health campaign that ran in FYs 2021 and 2022. The FY 2023 campaign will primarily serve as a public service announcement (PSA) to inform pregnant mothers about the risks of delaying oral health care during pregnancy, the safety of receiving oral health care during pregnancy, and highlight the importance of routine oral health care while utilizing IOHP’s branding (#tapintoyourhealth). IOHP will evaluate materials created by reviewing message analytics, following trends in Medicaid member utilization rates, and reviewing the Idaho Pregnancy Risk Assessment Tracking System (PRATS) data.

In FY 2023, the IOHP will distribute the updated pregnant women educational materials, in both English and Spanish, along with bags containing the recently acquired washcloths, toothbrushes, floss, timers, and toothpaste to each PHD. The PHDs will then pass these resources along to expectant mothers throughout the state where they deliver health education.

Additional activities in FY 2023 will include continuing to work collaboratively with the IOHA, Idaho State Dental Association (ISDA), Idaho Dental Hygienist’s Association (IDHA), and the Idaho Primary Care Association (IPCA) to support the exploration and expansion of the utilization of Medicaid for oral health services. One area of focus in particular will be to increase the number of providers accepting new patients on Medicaid, especially children and pregnant mothers.

The IOHP will prepare to work with partners in planning the next third-grade oral health basic screening survey (Smile Survey) and Body Mass Index (BMI) Survey which is scheduled for the 2023-2024 school year.

Additionally, the IOHP will continue to participate in national efforts, including the national CMV/CHIP Affinity Group for fluoride varnish expansion, the ASTDDs’ committees, and will utilize existing national relationships with other oral health programs and statewide partnerships. The IOHP remains committed to sharing best practice models and evidence-based strategies for providing population-specific oral health prevention and education efforts with all subrecipients and those interested in improving oral health statewide.