Insights

Join the National Institute for Children's Health Quality (NICHQ) on Nov. 6 at 2 p.m. for The Ever-Evolving Path to Equity in Children’s Health, a​ panel highlighting the evolution of NICHQ's equity work at the  2022 American Public Health Association Annual Meeting. 

The NICHQ National Action Partnership to Promote Safe Sleep Improvement and Innovation Network (NAPPSS-IIN) project will continue to convene six Community of Practice (CoP) groups from September 2022 – March 2023. CoPs include Birthing Professionals, Community Advocacy Organizations, Community-Based Home Visitors, Early Childcare Providers, First Responders, and Researchers. Each group will convene twice to continue to address policies, improve skills, and learn from each other’s experiences in the areas of safe sleep and breastfeeding.

Earlier this year, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed that maternal mortality rates increased during the first year of the pandemic, continuing a decades-long trend of increasing pregnancy-related deaths. With our Joint Organizational Commitment, NICHQ acknowledges that racism is a public health crisis and lays out our commitments to critically analyze and change our organizational systems with the goal of advancing racial equity. 

Teams at the National Institute for Children’s Health Quality are preparing for an exciting spring 2022 conference season, where staff will provide keynote addresses, give poster presentations, and facilitate workshops at a variety of national maternal and child health conferences.  

The Maternal and Child Environmental Health Collaborative Improvement and Innovation Network (MCEH CoIIN), a national initiative led by the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs developed the MCH Lead Poisoning Toolkit to share innovative practices and methods that nine different state teams tested out to improve access to systems and services that address the needs for pregnant women, infants, children, and families that are exposed to lead. 

In more than 4 million homes across America, children are living and playing while being exposed to the damaging effects of lead. This Alabama family's experience illustrates why improving provider education is an important driver for states seeking to improve systems of care; it leads to earlier testing, early and effective interventions, and the coordinated care families need so that more children have the opportunity to grow up in healthy, safe environments.