Maternal and Child Health Assessment 2015
In 2015, the Minnesota Department of Health conducted a Maternal and Child Health Needs Assessment for the state of
Minnesota. Under the direction of a community leadership team, this assessment identified nine priorities for improving
the health of mothers, children, adolescents, pregnant women, infants, and children and youth with special health needs.
Working with stakeholders from across Minnesota the leadership team identified specific areas of focus for each priority,
along with possible measurements, strategies, practices, and action recommendations. We understand that there are some
overlap among the nine priority areas; to avoid duplication, most areas of focus are only identified once, even though they
could be under multiple priorities. (For example, prenatal care is important for both Preventive Health Care and Healthy
Babies, but it is only listed under Healthy and Planned Pregnancy.)
These priority sheets were created to provide data and ideas for community members, policy makers, public health
professionals, and others working towards improving maternal and child health in Minnesota.
Priority: Improve Adolescent Health (Ages 10-25)
Supporting Minnesota's youth and young adults, including those with special health needs, as they transition into
healthy adults; optimize their mental, social, sexual, and physical health; and connect with their communities.
Focus areas:
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Transition to adulthood
Promote preventive health care
Youth are engaged and connected to communities
The Maternal Child and Health Assessment Leadership Team identified these specific action recommendations to
improve the health of adolescents and young adults in Minnesota:
1. Increase access to programs and services that promote transition to adulthood for adolescents and youth with
special health needs.
2. Increase adolescents’ usage of preventive health care (physical, mental, sexual health) by training providers on
how to best serve adolescents and educating adolescents on the importance of preventive care.
3. Involve youth in decision making and program planning.
4. Create targeted outreach for youth of color and LGBTQ youth to promote usage of preventive health care.
5. Build community capacity to engage and support young people to be connected to community, school and
caring adults.
Transition to Adulthood
Objective: Support young people in the transitions from childhood into an adulthood in areas such as education,
employment, and health systems.
One possible way to understand the general success of young adults in transitioning into adulthood is to look at
employment data, which looks at the employment rates of young adults who are pursuing employment (it does not include
those choosing to be in school instead of working).
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Chart 1: Percent of Minnesotan’s age 18-24 experiencing unemployment
Source: “Young Adults in Minnesota: A Demographic & Economic Profile” Minnesota State Demographic Center. Population Notes,
June 2015.
Within the world of health care among children and youth with special health needs, “transition” is a specific
idea of how an adolescent moves from pediatric health care to adult health care. In order to understand this
better, measurements consider specific key components of a successful transition within the health care system.
Chart 2: Percent of YSHCN meeting transition components (12-17 yrs. old)
Source: National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs, 2009-2010.
Measurements/outcomes for transition:
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Percent of adolescents with and without special health care needs who receive services necessary to make
transitions to adult health care.
Youth with special health care needs who receive the services necessary to make transitions to all aspects of adult
life, including adult health care, work, and independence.
Young adult employment rate (people enrolled in school are not counted as unemployed).
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Examples of strategies or practices to support transition:
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Low-cost community college, trade schools.
Support the transition to work for recent high school or college graduates, persons with disabilities, those getting
out of the military, or parents returning to the workforce.
Promote apprenticeship programs.
Provide support for transition via in-home services or other non-clinical based modes of providing support to
youth with special health needs.
Use quality improvement methods and standardized tools to improve transition of care for youth within clinical
settings.
Promote interagency work between Minnesota Department of Health, Minnesota Department of Education and
the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development to support youth in transitioning to
adulthood.
Develop clinic based transition models, spread practice to other clinics, could use Health Care Homes models or
clinics – materials available from the National Health Care Transition Center.
Promote preventive health care
(Youth-friendly, including physical, mental, and sexual health.)
Objective: Increase the percent of Medicaid enrolled adolescents who have had a wellness checkup or Child and Teen
Checkup in the past 12 months.
Chart 3: Adolescents (ages 10-20) well child visit participation ratio*, Minnesota Health Care Programs - 2014
Source: Minnesota Department of Human Services. CMS-416 Report - FFY 2014. Analyzed February 2015. *Participation ratio is the
ratio of how many children are eligible to receive at least one well child visit in the year, and actually received one.
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Measurements/outcomes for preventive health care:
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Percent of adolescents, ages 12 through 17, with a preventive medical visit in the past year.
Percent of 9th and 12th graders who indicate they have a mental or emotional problem that lasted at least 12
months.
Examples of strategies or practices to support preventive health care:
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Train pediatric adolescent health residents, fellows, and nurse practitioners/physician assistant students in Child
and Teen Checkup requirements; develop curriculum for use in higher education programs.
Increase the capacity of health care providers to effectively address adolescent health needs, and providing
services confidentially while balancing the need to reach out to parents of teens.
Support self-advocacy: Encourage agencies and organizations to focus on support of adolescents to learn and use
self-advocacy.
Develop and promote non-traditional ways of accessing services (e.g. social media, telehealth, outreach).
Increase partnerships between programs that target adolescents/young adults and health care/public health
systems.
Further support and expand minor consent laws to include mental health services.
School based clinics students have the convenience of receiving healthcare during the day and also gain practice
in managing their own healthcare.
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Engaged and connected to communities
Objective: Increase the proportion of adolescents who participate in extracurricular and/or out-of-school activities,
including youth with special health needs.
Overall in 2013, 86.8% of students participated in one or more organized activities outside of school, such as sports teams
or lessons, clubs, organizations, music, dance, language or other arts. An estimated 31% of children and youth with
special health needs have a condition which interferes with their ability to participate in sports, clubs or other organized
activities.
Chart 4: Percent of 9th grade students participating in activities outside of the regular school day, 2013
Source: Minnesota Student Survey, 2013
Measurements/outcomes for engaged and connected adolescents:
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Percent of adolescents who participate in extracurricular and/or out-of-school activities.
Percent of youth (ages 12-17 years) involved in any type of community service or volunteer work at school,
church, or in the community in the past 12 months.
Examples of strategies or practices to support youth engagement:
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Increase focus on the use of positive youth development interventions for preventing adolescent health risk
behaviors.
Promote and increase opportunities for youth with special health needs to engage in out of school time activities.
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Promote positive youth development and increase the protective factors that contribute to resiliency and healthy
outcomes.
Engage youth authentically in addressing their issues and/or pursuing their interests.
Involve young people in activities that provide opportunity for:
o Healthy experimentation
o Development of critical social skills
o Connections to caring adults
o Involvement in meaningful activities within the community
o Experiences of success.
Develop systems that comprehensively include youth.
Promote social and emotional learning programs for youth.
Adolescent Health was or is an identified priority, focus, or goal of all of these reports, plans, and organizations:
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Maternal and Child Assessment Inquiry Feedback - MDH
2010 Title V National Performance Measure
Minnesota’s Adolescent Health Action Plan
Advancing Health Equity Report – MDH
CDC Healthy People 2020
Children’s Defense Fund – MN
Community Health Boards – MN
Eliminating Health Disparities Initiative – MDH
Healthy Minnesota 2020: Statewide Health Improvement Framework
Infant Mortality Reduction Plan – MDH
Injury and Violence Prevention – MDH
MN Statewide Health Assessment 2012 – MDH
Prenatal to Three Plan – MN
Rainbow Health Initiative
Women, Infant and Children – MN
For more information about the 2015 Maternal and Child Health Assessment, or about the Title V Block Grant, please
visit the Minnesota Department of Health webpage at http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/cfh/na/ .
On the data charts above, all races are non-Hispanic ethnicity, unless otherwise indicated.
PO Box 64882, St. Paul, MN 55164-0882
651-201-3760
Health.TitleV@state.mn.us
http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/cfh/na/MCHNeedsAssessment.html
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