Learning Resources

What Title V Agencies are Doing to Advance Health Equity and Address Social Determinants of Health: A Summary

Title V agencies are looking for innovative ways to address health equity and incorporate social determinants of health (SDOH) into their daily work. The MCH Evidence Center has reviewed state action plans, priorities, and measures to identify some ways that this work is being conducted. See a summary of our findings below and watch a video that explains what we've found.

Over 20 Title V agencies have selected health equity as a priority. Activities include:

• Identifying health equity workforce opportunities for Title V/partners.
• Engaging individuals, families, and communities as partners in the development and implementation of programs/policies.
• Increasing access to coordinated, comprehensive services.
• Working to undo systemic drivers of disparities.
• Institutionalizing equitable policies and practices.

Over 15 Title V agencies have selected SDOH as a priority. Activities include:

• Creating safe and connected built environments.
• Eliminating institutional and structural racism in internal programs.
• Developing a proactive and responsive healthcare system.
• Addressing social determinants of health inequities.
• Increasing the focus of Title V on the Social Determinants of Health.
• Enhancing supports for parents and families.

To approach from a different perspective, there are internal and external capacities that are being built at the state and local levels:

Internal Capacity Building:

• Training for staff.
• Peer learning for staff.
• Consultation with experts.
• Dedicated research in understanding state’s historic patterns of racial inequity.
• Health Equity Action teams/work groups.

External Capacity Building:

• Developing programs with an equity lens/reworking current programs to center equity.
• Tracking equity-related bills in state legislature.
• Meaningfully engageing families in the decision-making process.
• Framing racism as a public health crisis – explicit focus on individual and structural racism as pervasive causes of poor health.
• Data management and data disaggregation that centers health equity.