So far this year, the Minnesota Academy of Pediatrics Foundation (MAPF) has provided more than $20,000 in support to Minnesota clinics through various grants aimed at addressing food insecurity, immunization rates and mental health. Currently, the MAPF is accepting applications for two new initiatives:

Investing in Health for First and New Americans
Two clinic teams and their communities will be supported with mini-grant funding and receive consultation from the refugee and/or Native American community to implement education, outreach, review/update recall and educational materials for linguistic and cultural appropriateness. Additionally, the two clinics and their teams will identify individuals from the community interested in educational scholarship for Community Health Worker (CHW) career development that will be funded from this project to assist clinic and community partners with increasing health access.

For more information, visit www.mnaap.org or email cairns@mnaap.org

Screening for Poverty: Bridging to Books and Benefits
The project goal is to create a clinic-friendly model that utilizes Bridge to Benefits and CAP navigators to connect families identified by pediatric clinicians to nutritious food assistance, health insurance, early childhood scholarships, literacy support, and earned income tax credits to help reduce poverty as a component of the pediatric medical home. Ultimately, we hope to provide education and a replicable model to address child poverty by a medical home. The project is focusing on greater Minnesota counties.

For more information, visit www.mnaap.org or email debilzan@mnaap.org

MNAAP’s work groups are open to any MNAAP member or their support staff. They meet by conference call every 1-2 months either before clinic or over the lunch hour. Members are welcome to participate in these calls as their schedules allow. Here’s a snapshot of what the work groups have been up to over the last few months. Email cairns@mnaap.org for more information about these work groups and/or how you can get involved.

Safety/Child Maltreatment

• Launched a CME webinar series on child abuse recognition, referrals and reporting.
• Facilitated call between work group and DHS to discuss new and impending changes to screening guidelines, and offered recommendations on closing communication gaps.
• Planning sessions on child abuse screening and referrals at May 12 Hot Topics in Pediatrics Conference

Mental Health

• Strategic planning meeting identified 3-year priorities for clinician training, resources and partnerships.
• Six clinics completed an MDH/ DHS grant to implement a learning collaborative integrating behavioral health into pediatric primary care. Participating clinics showed improvements from baseline in four of five measures.
• Planning webinars and live sessions for members

Poverty/Disparities

• Hosted webinar titled “Bridge to Benefits: A Tool for Clinics to Refer Low-Income Families to Local Resource” with more than 100 participants.
• Assisted with MNAAP statement on gun violence, racism and intolerance
• Planning sessions on poverty and health disparities at May 12 Hot Topics in Pediatrics Conference

Immunizations

• Leading an MOC 4 quality improvement and education project on HPV immunization rates. Participating clinics increased HPV initiation by 10-25 percent over a 3-month period and also increased Tdap and MCV4 rates.
• Received funding from MN Department of Health for Eliminating Health Disparities in Immunization.
• Supported addition of HPV to the MN Community Measures adolescent platform of vaccines reported.

Email cairns@mnaap.org for more information about these work groups and/or how you can get involved.