Insights

The National Institute for Children's Health Quality (NICHQ) has incorporated AARs as a quality improvement tool for the past four years. Read a conversation with NICHQ Project Director Sandra Widland, MPH,  and Associate Project Director Eliza Williamson about the ways NICHQ utilizes AARs in various projects and its benefits to healthcare professionals and others interested in improving systems.

NICHQ Project Coordinator Beverly Reyes shares her deep passion for equity in healthcare, stemming from her family background and cultural experiences as a child of immigrants. 

In recognition of Maternal Mental Health Awareness Month, we’re taking some time to reflect on maternal mental health and the experiences of a new parent who is also a maternal and child health researcher. Read our conversation with NICHQ Associate Director of Research and Evaluation Meera Menon, PhD, and learn more about her experiences navigating these roles and thoughts about how public health practitioners can hold maternal mental health more compassionately for all new parents, but especially those negatively impacted by social determinants of health. 

Teams at the National Institute for Children’s Health Quality are preparing for an exciting spring 2023 conference season, where staff will give poster presentations and facilitate workshops at a variety of national maternal and child health conferences.  

NICHQ Development Manager Ana Franklin shares her personal and professional commitment to health equity as the adopted daughter of a retired general health practitioner. As Development Manager, Ana is responsible for supporting the grant processes, such as managing the proposal development process and monitoring proposal timelines. As well as supporting process improvement, like developing templates and checklists that keep the whole process and proposal team organized and on track.

Land acknowledgements, like sharing our gender pronouns, are another part of bringing our fuller selves to our work and fostering an inclusive meeting culture. Land acknowledgements can demonstrate a respect for the original stewards of the land where we reside and gather. They can be an important tool for Natives and non-Natives to facilitate both honoring the past and acknowledging its impact on the present and future. Factors like where you live and if other equity practices (i.e. land acknowledgements and pronoun sharing) are incorporated into the other parts of your life can affect how fluidly you bring them into your professional role. By practicing inclusive meeting culture, humbly and with good intention, we have an opportunity to positively impact our participants and the communities we serve.

A February report from the American Medical Association confirmed that lack of access to puberty blockers or hormone therapy was strongly correlated with poor mental health and suicidal ideation among trans youth. Conversely, and powerfully, research released on March 29 shows that transgender and nonbinary young people who came out about their gender identity and had high family support reported lower rates of considering and attempting suicide in the past year.

As physicians, public health professionals, and care providers committed to health equity, we have an obligation to support youth with unique healthcare needs who are at higher risk for negative health outcomes from discrimination, including bullying, physical assault, and suicide. Join us by engaging in meaningful dialogue about best practices for gender-diverse kids to improve quality of life, reduce mental health disparities, and most importantly, help the most historically marginalized kids achieve their optimal health. 

In honor of World Doula Week, celebrated annually March 22-28, The National Institute for Children’s Health Quality (NICHQ) held a conversation with LaToshia Rouse, CD/PCD(DONA), owner of Birth Sisters Doula Services. Rouse currently serves as the Patient and Family Engagement Co-Chair of the National Network for Perinatal Quality Collaboratives Executive Committee and joined NICHQ’s Board of Directors in March 2022. 

Indigenous mothers and birthing people, fathers, partners, caregivers, and families, can speak for themselves. So, make sure seats are available – and filled – on your projects, your teams, your boards. Many projects within the MCH field have steering committees, and all should have family representation. As I hope you’ve intuited, it’s not enough to carry a message. When I think about justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion with regard to our committees, our faculty experts, or even in our improvement advisors, I have begun to ask the question: Are there people from American Indian and Alaska Native communities here?

Browse a collection of NICHQ articles, webinars, and resources that your community found most valuable in 2022.

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.